He has Arrived.

After 36 hours and flights from SLC to NY to Moscow to Samara, he's arrived.  Here he is with his Mission President & wife...he looks a little tired, don't you think?  Did you know mail can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months?  Luckily he gets to email us on Mondays -- he, on the other hand, is going to have to wait to hear from us while the mail catches up!

I am especially liking the pens in his pocket.  A missionary classic if you ask me.

And Then We Bid Farwell

I'm not going to lie.  The last couple days have been a little rough.  Rough in the sense that my emotions always seem to hover just under the surface, bubbling up at unexpected times & places.  I feel like I am always a moment or glance away from tears & it has thrown me for a loop.  I see something that reminds me of him & the fact that I can't pick up the phone to call him, text him, message him, heck I'd even instagram him to laugh about it is frustrating to me.  I have come to realize just how much I like my instant communication & just how many things jog my memory.  

My family gathered one last time on Tuesday night to say our final goodbyes to Kevin.  This picture is the 'pretty' goodbye.  We still had the whole night ahead of us.  Dinner.  Dessert.  Good friends & even better laughs.

And then, as suddenly as I had finished my Nielsen's Frozen Custard, I was in a parking lot looking like this:

 

Why in the world I was saying goodbye in a parking lot is beyond me, but alas, here is my ugly cry complimented with Kevin's laugh.  Poor guy had to hold it together for all of us.  And so, that was it.  I cried an ugly cry.  Hugged a hug & went home.  Scoobs got to stay out late with me & this is my favorite picture of him saying goodbye...it is pretty awful of just about everyone else, but it reminds me of how he just clung to his legs.  They are such good buddies & similar is so many ways.  I love it.

And so now he is in the MTC {Missionary Training Center} in Provo, UT.  Each night I think of him & hope he is well & once we hear from him, I am sure this will all start to feel so much better & we will settle into our new normal.

He was so ready to go & I am so excited to hear of all his adventures...good & bad.  It has already been such a blessing to our family as we came together to send him off.  And so, with that, I will close the chapter on being sad.