I Don't Want to Go Bye Bye....but I Have!

Hard, hard, hard. That is really all that NEEDS to be said, but those who know and love me, KNOW that is NOT all I WILL say. ::snirft:: (snort/sniff)

Josiah and Jamin showed up at the Lake at 9:00 a.m. As we repacked the trailer, Josiah played a card game of some sort with Zander. Zander's Queen "magically" pops up as needed. Hmmm.... ::snort::

Finally, the two boys hooked the trailer up as Mike and I went for a quick walk to the dock.

We went back to "Stacia's House" one last time. It shines. TMO picked up the girls' college shipment this a.m.

It was HARD to say goodbye. I thought it would be easier as both of our men have previously moved out of our home....but WOW....there is a difference in knowing they are a mile away and knowing that we will be thousands of miles away. We cried. Then I tried to go back into denial as we'll see them again in Seattle.

JAMIN is the child years ago that began the "chase the visitor's cars down the block thing." Today he chased the trailer down the block. I was crying as I watched and then told Krista to grab the camera....we missed the run, but this is even more poignant. Jamin's the white blob.

Jamin gave me a quarter this a.m. A quarter that a few years ago he threw into a campfire. The next a.m. he picked it up. His fingerprints are scorched on to the quarter. He gave it to me this a.m. as a way to remember to pray for him. Oh, son, we need no reminders....HOWEVER, this quarter touches my need to have something tangible of you adult children...do not be surprised if it shows up as a necklace. ::snirft::

Watching Cy and Jamin hug the younger ones goodbye was heart-rending....and I took no photos.....don't count on many from the airport either.

At lunch I told someone to go ahead of us as there were two of them and 10 of us....Mike said, "There are only 7 of us, De'Etta," and I teared up. This is our new reality.....7 plus KRISTA... I'm so glad she is with us. We had a great day driving together...lots of mommy/daughter time.

The view we saw until I called Mike and said, "Can I go ahead and drive the speed limit and meet you in Big Springs?" ::snort::


West Texas

BTW....Krista and I arrived much quicker....traveled the back roads that the GPS sent us on....I think having two vehicles is going to have some advantages...we checked in, can buy groceries etc before the gang arrives.

Cindy requested this photo.

Ah, the family is here - 9:17 p.m. Time to set up camp and get some sort of food into them.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Don't you love the graphic in the sidebar? Visit Rick to see more.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Blessing, Balloons & Trauma - Last Day in San Angelo

Mike and Krista got back to the trailer at 1 a.m.

We met our realtors early. They loved the house. There is currently a 9 month supply of houses on the market in our price range...but we are offering closing, the house is newly painted, newly carpeted etc. The circled up with us and PRAYED for our trip, thanked God for knowing us, prayed that God would send a family to our home who would know and experience the Love that currently resides in the house.....I love our realtors. They also gave the boys directions on how to reach them 24 hours a day.

The boys received an unexpected play date with the Leathermon boys. Thanks Tammy.

The youngers met us at the house at lunch time.

I spent 10 hours on the phone with Verizon....I now have a domain...and POSSIBLY we'll keep our same email addresses when they disconnect our DSL...we shall see. If we disappear, remember the address in the sidebar will work. After 10 hours I had no CONFIDENT address that we'll keep our email address to the trip - BUT the web hosting dept had informed me the rest of the departments don't have a clue how the web works and that since the domain is established and is linking from those verizon addresses it will be fine. I agree that the other departments don't appears to have answers so I'm going to trust him. We'll see tomorrow what happens. LOL

We blessed Jamin as he moves from young male to adult male. This is something we do as a family....these are sweet and personal moments in our family life. I share it here because Mike keeps telling me the blog is a "family history and legacy". We also blessed Cy's apartment when he moved in....we decided to bless it again and send it to the apartment across the way that the boys will be moving in to in 9 days. ::snort::

For graduation we kicked Jamin out of a plane, gave him a printer and a mattress.

A tradition we began when we moved from Alaska is a farwell balloon release. Four years ago we shared the good and the bad, committed to release the bad and move on. It was meaningful but not quite "right", I thought. I had instigated this tradition. Yesterday, the missing part clicked. I shared about cherish and cling. We discussed the memories and people that we will cherish from San Angelo. We discussed the hard and bad things that have happened here...and we resolved as a family to cherish the memories of this season...but not to cling to the good or the bad...to move on to what God has for us in the next three years.

Each person shared....we didn't use strings this year...so how enviromentally aware we've become.

Josiah decide a good and bad balloon were in order. ::snort::








We prayed and released the ballons. What a visual reminder that it's time to let it go and move on....

Blessings...Balloons & Trauma?

We made a last stop at Armstrongs. Zander took Mrs. Armstrong flowers. We dropped off another van load of "stuff," gardening and cleaning stuff this time. ::snort:: Mike and Doug joked about how far we hope to make it today.....the battle cry has become "Abilene by Dinner" - about 90 miles away. The joke between Mike and Deja had been that I skipped a retirement dinner and cancelled a cleaning date so I could avoid saying goodbye to Deja. I plead the 5th....however, I did show up to say goodbye. I want that noted, my shoeless friend.

We headed for dinner. A huge storm - tornado like - blew in. We rushed to the lake to get our dog and she was gone. Arielle was heart broken. She had tied her to a tree with water and food so she'd have shade. She didn't mention this to any of us until the storm began. She didn't have a clue the sun would move or that a storm would blow in. They looked all over the grounds, while I cuddled a sobbing, shaking Arielle in a sleeping bag and prayed that our time in San Angelo and our time with our wonder dog wouldn't end this way. A neighbor finally told us that the camp host had Bea.

Mike, Jared and Krista headed back to the house to "finish up".

The younger ones and I waited for Bea's return. She was cold and shivering.....and seemed to be saying, "How COULD you leave me in a storm and now you're going to leave me in ID." Her eyes are rather expressive. We dried her, cuddled her, rubbed her and she slept well all night.

It was a full day. I'm doing a couple of loads of laundry this a.m. the rest of the family will be waking up shortly, our men are meeting us here to get the trailer ready to go....and we WILL leave town today....not sure how far we will get....stay tuned.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Happy Birthday Krista!

Our second born is 22 years old today!

Krista was born with the gift of service. When she was younger we worked hard for her to understand that she was loved for WHO she is and not for WHAT she does.... We've taken great joy in watching God mature this gift for His benefit during the past 22 years.

When Krista heard we were moving, she put in her notice at work so that she could come out for Jamin's graduation, stay to help us get things ready for the move and travel with us. It appears an Air Force brat can never have enough of cross country pcs trips. ::snort::

Krista has an amazing sense of determination. School was TOUGH for her. She has dyslexia and this meant that learning to read, write and spell was a chore...but she is determined and has an "I can do this" temperment. I was amazed a couple of months ago to get a call asking me to save all the orginal philosphers and years of Cornerstone curricum because she'd like to "run through them again"....this was the curriculum that the publisher advised us not to try with her because it was for "gifted" students. May I encourage you that if God impresses on you that something is right for your child - HE is the EXPERT? ::snort::

One aspect of dyslexia is that Krista can SEE the big picture...in math, in life, in jobs....and therefore is a great one to solve all sorts of problems....and she's learning the need to communicate WHY the big plan will work to others...but often she simply KNOWS and SEES the big plan and isn't sure why......

Krista will enter Eugene Bible College this year as a Junior (she has lots of credits to transfer from non-traditional sources). She is pursuing a degree in Intercultural Ministries.... missions...and we are excited to see where God leads her.

Thanks for all your help these past days, Sweets! We love you! God blessed us real good when he placed you in our family.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...