We said good-bye to our oldest daughter this week. She will be living in the Holy Land until April 23, 2009. As we helped her finish packing and getting ready, Steve and I had an emotional moment. Okay, that's not QUITE true--we actually had numerous emotional moments. Some of these emotions manifested itself in irritation, tenseness, being on edge, and flat out weeping. I tried to keep it together, but that last hug at the airport did me in and I could not even speak. Through out the day, Steve and I tracked her flights online, and that evening we all emailed her so that she would have a message waiting for her when she turned on her computer at the Jerusalem Center. When we received her email back, I immediately forwarded it to family and friends and Steve couldn't resist giving her a call. Today, Steve came up to me and said, "I miss my baby. Would it be bad if I called her again?" No, it wouldn't. We all miss her. It is much calmer and quieter at home, yet we miss her vitality and sense of fun.
This recent parting with Kelsey has brought to mind other partings in our family. It's been a little over twelve years now that my family gathered around the hospital bed of my brother Mark and sang to him our good-byes before his spirit left his body. How grateful I am that we had the chance to say good-bye to him, and tell him we loved him. I know this separation is temporary, but it is still hard and we miss him. I can't help but think of another parting in our family, that of my sister, Julie. Without knowing it, I said my good-bye and "I love you" to her at the end of what would turn out to be my last visit with her. I am grateful that I told her. I am sad that she left the way she did, but I am glad that she knew that I loved her.
One thing that my kids are really good at is saying the words, "I love you." We say that to each other a lot, and so I am okay with parting for a time because "There are no good-byes, where ever we are, you'll always be in my heart."
