is this really happening????

   

 So when we left America to launch into this adventure of living in the Middle East 5 ½ years ago, we had some very teary, painful conversations with family. Saying goodbye at their airport was excruciating. Not because we would never see our family again, but because we knew that life as we had known it was going to change. Accessibility, regular visits, Holidays, life events would be so different. Of course our hearts would stay committed and deeply connected..but all the small daily events that weave together your reality was about to shift.

 Enter the greatest gift God could give us…team. Friends willing to sell everything and embark on this journey together.

 And I can honestly say that I did not think through the reality of what happens when your comrades… the ones that blazed the trail with you….that discovered all the firsts with you…who have been everything for you in the last 5 ½  years…when it becomes clear it is their time to move on…well, it’s another blow.

 First language experiences, chopping off a chicken’s head, first day of school, Arabic blunders, first visits, first taxi rides, finding  houses, first holidays away from home, becoming “the holiday matriarch” for our own nuclear family, devouring a 50 pound bag of candy sent from America in the height of our cultural transition ( thank you debi!) traveling in the region, getting pushed off two buses only to get on a third that broke down on the highway, getting freaky viruses and passing them to each other and each other’s kids,  first pregnancies, first babes,

first Arabic conversations, figuring out “working out” in these different cities,  making friends,  having friends flake out on you, women’s beaches,

 learning how to dance, adjusting our wardrobes to the demands of fashion,

working hard to have marriages that are thriving, going through obsessions : American idol, Lost, Harry Potter, hunger games, and more…crying and laughing in Arabic class together…oh the furnace of learning another language, birthdays parties, hosting teams,  and all the small mundane things of daily life that we walked through.

 Then to have to say goodbye…and help your kids say goodbye…it is just hard to know where to start. To sum up the past years of everything so beautiful and messy and funny and overwhelming and put your team mates on a plane.

 Knowing that there will be grace in the moment, that if I think ahead to their absence it feels just like a void, but instead to know that the Giver of all Good gifts wants to continue to pour out friendship and family to both of us.

 So…the two questions that kept sneaking their way to the front of my thought life was…is this really happening? And how do you brace yourself for such a change? One day they are with you, doing everything, next day they are gone.

  So here we are. Goodbye was a rich, meaningful, nostalgic time where we cried and laughed…a lot. We were quite a sight at our favorite restaurant, each of us toasting and sharing favorite memories and what each other means… sometimes tears falling softly, sometime choking back sobs ( ahem) then the tension breaking with peals of laughter.

   At the end of the goodbyes, with heavy hearts Drew looked me in the eyes and said…well, Mary this is what life is about. Doing kingdom life with incredible friends.

 And he is right. What a gift these pioneers were.

and some pics of a last girl date..going to a cupcake place extraordinaire...