farewell

I don't like farewells. We've had a hard week of good-byes as we are moving to CA (today). I can't think of anything fun about moving - packing and unpacking, saying good-bye, traveling long distances (with young kids), and transitioning to a new place and new people. Many have kindly commented that it will be a new adventure, but to be honest, my sense of adventure isn't very high. I like predictability, routine, and being in my comfort zone. It takes me a while to warm up to new people and things. It's definitely not comfortable to meet new people and try to make new friends.

In the long run though, moving is a good thing. I think of all the good friends and people I've met in the different places we've lived. We've been blessed to have many wonderful friends. I appreciate those who have gone out of their way to get to know us and many times to take the first step to introduce themselves or extend an invitation. One of my first friends here and one of my best friends I met at the library at storytime. We have kids nearly the same age - Nathan and Garett are about 4 months apart, and Jared and Emalee are about 2 months apart. Amanda took the 1st step of introducing herself, offering her phone number and suggesting we get together (kind-of like a 1st date... ha ha. :)) Anyway, we recognized we had a lot in common and got along well right away. Nathan and Garett really seemed to hit it off and quickly became buddies. The past four years, we've had a lot of fun times, some of those including coaching a soccer team together, outings to the zoo, swimming lessons, birthday parties, playgroups at the park, soccer games, trick or treating, and storytimes at the library of course. One memorable time involved a 30th surprise birthday party for Alex - Amanda helped me make a big VW bus in her garage. We also had fun coaching 3 and 4 year old soccer. There's so many great memories. It was hard to hold back the tears as we ended up saying good-bye from the same place we met.

(2007 - Nathan and Garett)

June 2010

I also met some other wonderful friends through Amanda. Laura and Amber also have boys Nathan's age (and girls Jared's age) - these 4 boys had so much fun together. (And we had some fun mom's nights out.) It's sad to break up this quartet.

Garett, Nathan, and David played soccer together

Amber and I have shared similar experiences this year - here's a belly shot (thanks to Nathan) of our baby boys at 36 weeks. This will also be the 4th for both of us. It's great to have a pregnancy friend.

We also had wonderful church and work friends and neighbors who have always been of service to our family and quick to lend a helping hand or invitation to dinner. I just wish we had a good picture of each of them. There are so many good people here in OK who have left a mark upon our hearts. We will truly miss all of our Okie friends.

We had a tough time leaving today - at the end of the day, we sat in our empty house and thought of all the good memories and friends from our time here in OK. We couldn't hold back the tears as we got ready to shut the door on this chapter of our lives and on to the next. We will miss everyone. Good-bye Oklahoma!