The final week in Slovenia

Our container came and went in about 3 hours. It was strange to see all of our things in boxes lining the driveway. I realized that we have a thing for tables after seeing all of them out of the house sitting and waiting to be packed. We had a great crew of guys come to help load the container and they had it all securely packed and loaded in less than 3 hours and were enjoying some coffee across the street at the cafe as the truck pulled out of the driveway.

I asked Abigail how she felt about all of our things going inside that giant box and she said it makes her "happy because it's going to Grandma's house." Elijah was thrown off by it all though and was understandably clingy and emotional that day and the few that followed. I was expecting that more from Abigail and was surprised to have it come from Elijah. Totally understandable though! I had tears in my own eyes as the truck pulled out of the driveway.

We had planned on going to the Jacksons that evening for the next 3, but after we were all sick, we thought it was best to just camp out at the house one last night to get everyone better so we didn't pass it all on to more people.

Our time at the Jacksons was short but really sweet. They have some great toys that the kids love to play with while they're there. The Jackson girls were so sweet with the kids as they played with them, read them stories and even babysat one night so we could go out for a final date night with Gregor & Katja.

As I said goodbye to Terry & Lori at their house and drove away, the tears just rolled and rolled. For so long we were preparing to "go" and as I said goodbye to them, it hit me that we were now "leaving." Abigail said, "Mommy, are you sad?" All I could do was sigh and say was "yes...I am." It was freeing to just let the tears flow the rest of the day.

After that, we stayed our last two nights at the Patty's new home. It was fun to stay there with them and share their dream of how it will be once the construction is finally complete. It was also fun for Abigail and Luke to get some extra play time together.

Joel was busy those final days going back and forth from the house, painting walls, touching up spots and getting the house cleaned up. Our neighbors are helping us out and have the key to unlock it for the real estate agent in case anyone is interested in seeing it. They emailed today and said that the house was shown this morning to a young family. We're hoping it sells soon!!

We flew out Saturday and shared many tearful goodbyes at the airport. I realized earlier in the week that I kept encouraging people to come say goodbye at the airport, 1) because we weren't flying out until 12:40pm, we would have time. And 2) because I just wasn't ready to be saying final goodbye's and just didn't want to do lots and lots of goodbyes...I just wanted to do them all at one time. Heading into it I didn't know if I would get through it, but by God's grace....I...we...did. We love our Slovene friends and teammates dearly and will treasure them always.