A Couple of Tough Ones

We are down to eight more days of Will.

His farewell was today, and he did great. Really really great. He said some tough goodbyes today to some of his life long friends, and that was hard.  The looming change is getting more real all the time.  I'm glad that mission farewells no longer include the whole family speaking in church. I am especially glad that mothers no longer speak at farewells. I would have been a blubbering mess.  I am a blubbering mess most of the time.

I am expecting that each day from here on out until the day he leaves will get a little messier than the one before. We have so much to do that this last week is going to fly by, and I really wish it could last forever. Why does everything have to change all the time? Why do these rotten kids always steal your heart and then grow up and move away just when they are turning into the most spectacular of people?

So yes, this week will be hard. Next week will be worse. Call me a pessimist, but I'm just planning on two sad, gut wrenching, downward spiraling weeks. We all know that I don't handle change well. Even good change wreaks havoc in my heart.  Normally, I would just throw in the towel on my life for a few weeks- over-eat, over-sleep, Netflix binge, under perform at work, and let the laundry and dishes pile up at home. But in this case, knowing that Will is at the MTC, aka Mormon Boot Camp, in a foreign country, surrounded by strangers, learning a new language, in a new schedule and new routines, AND dealing with all the same emotions of change that I am dealing with, it makes it rather difficult to feel justified in throwing a pity party for myself.  We are all just going to have to pull ourselves up by our dress socks and get on with life.

I don't expect that it will all be better in two weeks either. It's just that two weeks is only as far down the road as I can see. In two weeks, he will have made it to his first Sunday at the MTC. We will have survived our first Sunday without him here. Halloween will be staring us down, when that's over, we will have survived our first holiday without him here.

Those airport goodbyes though, are going to be so ugly.