After a brief spurt of posts to get this blog started on the right foot, I promptly disappeared. Here's why:
I REALLY did not want to write about what comes next!
Because what comes next is very hard and heart-wrenching. But it is also very beautiful. I needed time to process.
Back in July, we said goodbye to Emily, Jon, Lydda Grace and Wade for a long time, and across a long distance. They have moved to China for Jon to teach English at Harbin Engineering University. I admire so much the sacrifice they are making as a family in order to share their lives and hearts with Chinese students. They are living love on an everyday basis. Their willingness to pick up and GO halfway across the world, leaving family and friends and everything familiar behind, is inspiring and challenging. I am thankful for their example in my life.
I knew it was going to be hard to say goodbye, but I didn't know how hard. For the two years we have lived in Marietta, Emily and Jon have been the closest family to us, only about two hours away, and we have been blessed to visit them often and see Lydda Grace and Wade grow. We are going to miss those precious little ones and their parents so very, very much.
The very hardest part, though, is not just the time or the distance but the experiences that we won't get to share with them over the next year--namely, welcoming a particular baby girl into the world this fall. Baby girl will have to wait about seven months to meet her Aunt Emmie, Uncle Jon, and two oldest cousins. This new mama will sorely miss having her biggest sister around to call anytime about the new world of motherhood and all its challenges. And we will miss just sharing life with them--holidays and sewing projects and reading Angelina Ballerina and playing games and building block towers and staying up late talking and everything else...
However, we are so grateful for the technology that will allow us to still share life all the way from Georgia to China. Baby girl can meet and get to know Emily and family over Skype or Google Talk. Mark and I want our kids to be great friends with their cousins, and we are determined that the Internet will allow that to happen for baby girl and all of her cousins--none of whom live close by. (Virginia and Ohio are much closer than China, of course!) A tiny plus is the twelve hour time difference...I will definitely be taking you up on the offer to talk in the middle of the night, Em!
Here are some pictures of our time together in Chapin before saying goodbye.
Aunt Emmie making Isaac smile
I REALLY did not want to write about what comes next!
Because what comes next is very hard and heart-wrenching. But it is also very beautiful. I needed time to process.
Back in July, we said goodbye to Emily, Jon, Lydda Grace and Wade for a long time, and across a long distance. They have moved to China for Jon to teach English at Harbin Engineering University. I admire so much the sacrifice they are making as a family in order to share their lives and hearts with Chinese students. They are living love on an everyday basis. Their willingness to pick up and GO halfway across the world, leaving family and friends and everything familiar behind, is inspiring and challenging. I am thankful for their example in my life.
I knew it was going to be hard to say goodbye, but I didn't know how hard. For the two years we have lived in Marietta, Emily and Jon have been the closest family to us, only about two hours away, and we have been blessed to visit them often and see Lydda Grace and Wade grow. We are going to miss those precious little ones and their parents so very, very much.
The very hardest part, though, is not just the time or the distance but the experiences that we won't get to share with them over the next year--namely, welcoming a particular baby girl into the world this fall. Baby girl will have to wait about seven months to meet her Aunt Emmie, Uncle Jon, and two oldest cousins. This new mama will sorely miss having her biggest sister around to call anytime about the new world of motherhood and all its challenges. And we will miss just sharing life with them--holidays and sewing projects and reading Angelina Ballerina and playing games and building block towers and staying up late talking and everything else...
However, we are so grateful for the technology that will allow us to still share life all the way from Georgia to China. Baby girl can meet and get to know Emily and family over Skype or Google Talk. Mark and I want our kids to be great friends with their cousins, and we are determined that the Internet will allow that to happen for baby girl and all of her cousins--none of whom live close by. (Virginia and Ohio are much closer than China, of course!) A tiny plus is the twelve hour time difference...I will definitely be taking you up on the offer to talk in the middle of the night, Em!
Here are some pictures of our time together in Chapin before saying goodbye.
Wade working intently on MarbleWorks
LG showing BeBe her completed ballerina puzzle
Mark's "this is the best thing ever" face
Aunt BekBek and LG reading comics
The whole family
