Laden with happiness and tears...

Tonight, as we prepare to say goodbye to nearly half the residents of our home, I sense the most conflicted set of emotions I've ever known. For years now, we've been praying for God to clearly reveal His will for Dave and Kristen and the children, and He has answered that prayer. We rejoice over that answered prayer and over the promise the future holds for this treasured part of our family. And yet we are overwhelmed with sadness at the distance that answer will create between us. Thursday nights will never be the same...Sunday services a little smaller...science and history classes missing a second-grader...no toddler to steal my toothbrush. Okay, we won't have Cheerios on the floor or (as many) toys in my path or seven sippy cups on the deck. But something tells me that before two weeks is up I'd take those inconveniences just to have the elves back.

No, in the deepest sense I'd never hold them back. Their presence with us represented the answers to many of our prayers even during the months on end when they were begging God for the opportunity to be on their own. And now, that much-anticipated opportunity is here and I am cheering in the front row! But I'm cheering through my tears, aching already as I open my hands and release six of my favorite people to the road God has revealed. Oh, how I hate the miles! I hate it that two of my daughters and their husbands and five of my grandchildren will live on the east coast...that my best friend is on the opposite side of the country...that my ailing mother is hours away by car and can no longer travel in this direction. And though I've never been one to wish this life over, I am looking forward to an eternity without separation from those I love.

Tomorrow we will all wave as a big yellow truck carries the Slaughters and all their possessions out of our driveway. But forever, our memories of their time in our home will be some of our sweetest possessions...