Saying Goodbye

Much more costly than mission expenses, and much more difficult than waiting for a Visa is saying goodbye to our children and grandchildren. We have 8 children with wonderful spouses and 24 grandchildren. Each has a special place in our hearts and we will miss time spent with them. In our last few weeks before we report to the MTC, we have been spending as much time as possible with family—as many visits to Santa Clara and we can fit in, then trips to Phoenix, Medford, Oregon, Salt Lake City and next week to Las Vegas.

Our kids do such a wonderful job with their families and are all hardworking and independent, which allows us to serve a mission without worrying about them unduly. Still, we know that we will miss them and probably won’t REALLY know that until we’re 10,000 miles away. We are so lucky, though, to have so many means of communication available to us—our blogs, “FaceTime,” “Hangouts,” and even old school email. We plan to take advantage of each to stay current with the activities of the children and grandchildren and not miss too much of their growing up. I’m sure they will miss us too, but we appreciate the fact that they all support our adventure.