Mushrooms and Garlic

Well, the BIG day is drawing near.  Alan and I have been in a constant state of "pack" this past week, but are far from done.   As we get closer to our moving day, I am surprised to admit that with each passing day, the idea of leaving my home is becoming easier to swallow.  Perhaps it's the tying of loose ends that allows me to start looking forward to our new adventure or, maybe it's the increasing desire to just "be done" with the process.  Either way, I am starting to get truly excited about this move.

Last Monday was my last night at Real2Real, the youth group that I have been volunteering with for the last year.  Unexpectedly, leaving this group has been the single greatest hurdle with this move.  My last night with them was all about me.  No joke. Me. After a few worship songs [Which, I'll admit, were not, in fact, about me], I was able to tell the students more about the move, why we felt that God was asking us to go to Washington, as well as the step of faith this is taking [Ever read Joshua 2, when the Israelites had to step into the river before God would part the Jordan for them? Yeah, it's a bit like that].  I struggled to not tear up while looking around The Warehouse, realizing that I had indeed fallen in love with these high schoolers.  When I had wrapped up, they all gathered around me and prayed for our upcoming roller coaster of a move.  And then, now this is the really emotional part, we had a time [I promise, this was not my idea] in which the students could come up to the mic and tell a story about me, tell me what I meant to them or how I impacted their lives.  Some tears, some [very loud] laughter and a lot of hugs later, I had been able to get a glimpse of why God had placed me in that group.  It was such a blessing to have that last night with those students, but it has made it that much harder to leave them.  Would you believe that some of them even gave me gifts [Including, but not limited to, garlic and mushrooms, so that I can remember this incredible area that I was able to call home...not to mention the lovely aroma]?!  Oh boy, I love those crazy high schoolers.

As of Friday, Alan is unemployed.  Although I know that his leaving his students and coworkers was incredibly difficult and emotional, I really can't speak to his experience.  I do know that he brought home  some adorable gifts, cards and notes, and has not really grasped the fact that he does not have to drive to Fremont tomorrow.  Wow, we really are leaving.

Anyway, I should probably get back to that whole "packing" thing, even though the thought of staring at brown cardboard boxes all night is not my idea of a party.  I mean, really, why do we not have glittery leopard print packing material yet?  Home Depot really needs to embrace it's inner diva.