Adios

Well.....the dreaded day arrived and I survived. After living here 22 months, my Mom and sister boarded the plane about 6:20pm yesterday (Sunday). We were all teary eyed, especially Emma. Lots of changes coming up for her (grandparents in Texas, Tennessee, back to Texas to live, hopefully visits to Bolivia again), but she'll adjust quickly. I hope. Probably quicker than the rest of us! Reverse culture shock is worse than culture shock.

It looked like church again in the airport! Too bad that we didn't take a picture to not forget, but all or some members of all these families came (some of you will know them): Porters, Murrins, Summerfields, Bakers, and Holmans. And of course a tia came with 5 of the toddlers from the Baby Home, so it was quite the send-off.

I think it was good because it kept me distracted from focusing on saying bye. Directly leaving the airport, my Dad and I went to pick up our current 4 volunteers to take them to the now nearly-empty apartment to make something for dinner and watch a movie. So the evening went okay. I'm so busy that hopefully it won't sink in for a while that they are really gone?

Dad leaves two Sundays later. This Sunday another volunteer arrives. There are always airport trips! People coming and going, coming and going. We never realized how constantly transitional missionary life is, but it's pretty much constant loss and grief on different levels. Well now that I have everyone fired up to work internationally, I better quit...

On the Isla del Sol in Lake Titicaca (outside La Paz) with my parents and youngest sister Emma, January 2009

Other picture: Emma saying goodbye to "her" horse Lluvia (rain) the day before leaving