Our Farewell Service and a whole lotta tears!

Phew! This feels good. The boys are in bed. Our bags are packed and i'm sitting down with a scone from yesterday and a hot cup of tea.

I'm going to try to enjoy this peaceful moment and not think about tomorrow. Ok, well, i'll think about it long enough to tell you that we leave for the airport in less than ten hours.

Time, it's a funny thing. It feels like we were just moving over here to Northern Ireland and had a whole year ahead of us. It's now been a year and a half and Ethan has joined our family during that time and it feels like he's been a part of our family forever. I can't imagine our family without him anymore. And as I was putting the boys to bed for the last time in this house tonight I was thinking about all the memories we've made here in this short year and a half.

Many friends have come for dinner and games. Many cups of tea have been enjoyed around this table and around the fire. Many rainy day forts have been built with these chairs. But i'd better stop being all sappy before i get all teary eyed again like this morning. This morning? Oh, let me tell you about this morning...

Our church had a farewell service for us at the morning service. And our pastor had asked both Geoff and I to say a bit. I knew what I wanted to share and my biggest worry was getting up there and seeing all the faces and forgetting what i wanted to say. Well, that didn't quite happen but something else happened that I wasn't expecting! I get up there, see all the faces, shoot up a emergency prayers along the lines of  "Oh Lord, help!" and got about 90 seconds into it and I start tearing up. Oh dear! My mother in law, father in law and Granny had come to our church just for the special service and I see them sitting there. And I see so many great friends we've made this year and I think about saying goodbye. And then my throat starts closing up.  Oh no! and then the tears start falling. Oh boy! And not just a couple tears here and there. More like a torrential downpour! So I can barely talk and I have no tissues! How embarrassing! And of course it's me and once I start I really can't stop. (Just ask Brittany about the time I tried to say goodbye to her at her wedding!)

So tomorrow i'm going to post (scheduled of corse) a video tomorrow and type out what I tried to say this morning!

A big thank you to Ballygowan for the lovely service this morning. It was a blessing to us and we really are going to miss you all!




You all are probably getting tired of me talking about the photo contest. I think it's been my distraction this week. Instead of thinking about what i should actually get done and having to say goodbyes I've distracted myself with the fun photo contest. So just a reminder... only a few more days to get your votes in! =) Click here to vote for Christmas Cookies! All you need is a facebook account. You don't have to sign up or register for anything. This is the first day we haven't jumped up to 1st place.