A week ago. Only a week ago that we said Goodbye to our friends in the east, and the big farmhouses and winding roads of Lancaster County.
I knew moving was a huge amount of work and a pain in the back. This was our seventh move in seven years. I just forgot, again (when I was SURE I wouldn’t!) how NOT FUN it is.
We arrived home from Montana the previous Monday night and collapsed into our own wonderful bed. That week was full of packing, organizing, tying up loose ends and farewells. We advertised our van on Craig’s List and another online websight on Tuesday. We prayed it would sell. Sure enough, the day before we left, we sold it.
We had quite a bit of interest in the van online. One lady especially, grabbed my attention. She was a single mom with 4 kids and in desperate need of a vehicle. I think God just held other people off until she could come see it and make us an offer, because I think she really truly needed it. The night she picked it up, her Mom told me that their church was having a time of fasting. The last day of the fast was that very weekend that our van showed up for her daughter. Isn’t that amazing? We signed the title over to her on Saturday before we moved. Don’t you just love how God works!
(I apologize for the poor photo quality coming up. I didn’t take time to really look at the pictures until tonight and realized my camera was obviously not on proper settings. The images are more important to me then quality in this case, so please be gracious:)
Linda and her girls came over to help me pack the kitchen and pantry one day.
Joanna and Alisha tackled the big bookshelf.
Kobe was very glad to have someone to play with and read to him.
Otherwise, he got into lots of tight spots and hollered for me to come find him. Moving and two year old emotions aren’t the greatest combination.
My family came on Saturday to help us load our tailor. It was an unusually muggy, humid day for September. Steve and I had to run to Leola to sign paperwork yet in the morning, so all the hard workers got a big chunk of the house hauled out before we could even help. The brave guys sweated buckets as they arranged and rearranged everything.
The children had lots of fun playing together cooling off at the pump
and listening to the empty house echo when they sang.
We got the last pieces loaded around lunch time, then relaxed while we ate subs and ice cream. After that, came the goodbyes and the waving and torrential down pour of rain that brought flashfloods but broke the heat. Jason’s truck needed a new starter put in before they could go home. Thankfully they found a store that was open and had one on a Saturday afternoon.
Joe and Mona stayed for the weekend. Since our whole house was boxed up, Merv and Linda so kindly made room for us and Joe and Mona both at their house fro the night. We all had one more good time together.
Goodbyes are never easy, but with no goodbye, there is no new beginning. Goodbye is not forever for God’s Family. I’m so glad we can be part of that everlasting family of His sons and daughters!
I really don’t have words for all the emotions of that last Sunday. While part of it was familiar and comfortable and funny, other parts seemed so final and tear jerking and sad. I sat in church, unable to sing most of the time, memories of the last 2 1/2 years overwhelming me. Wishing we could sit on the back bench with Kierra in her chair beside us one more time. Remembering the kindness of all the folks that would help lift her chair up and down the church steps or just stop and stoop down beside her to say Goodmorning and that they were so glad she could come today. Sitting in the nursery with her when it got too loud in the auditorium, or turning the lights off during Sunday School so they wouldn’t shine in her eyes and drive her crazy.
After church, we went out to the grave for one last Goodbye. I had stopped by myself earlier in the week and had my little heart broken cry fest. As I turned from her grave that day to leave, the sun broke out behind the overcast clouds and literally spilled all over me in warmth. I think it was straight from heaven. I was so glad, because I felt so much more calm and hopeful since I had let out the pain and farewell to this little spot and our beautiful daughter’s life. Her memories will go with us anywhere we go. She is so safe now.
One of her little friends from Montana had asked me to buy flowers especially from her for the grave, so I found a nice bright bouquet that I thought Kierra would have enjoyed. Kobe quickly claimed possession of them.
They looked beautiful. Vibrant and so Kierraish.
The happy faces of Kobe and her cousins were a tiny reflection of the joy she is exuburating right now.
We miss her. So very much.
But our goodbyes are not forever!
Because we have this promise.
(*thanks to it all began with paint for this lovely hand painted sign. I have it hanging in my kitchen to remind me…goodbye is truly NOT forever, because the Love of my Saviour will welcome us into His everlasting joy some wonderful day!)
Wildflower Muse 