This month we partnered with a church to assist with building their new church, participated in an after school program helping children with their homework, and got to be part of the family of our hosts and pastors.
We have dogs, we have our own apartment, and we have been absolutely spoiled by our family here.
This month has felt a lot like Home and my heart is breaking as we prepare to leave tomorrow.
Our Ecuadorian mom (the pastor’s wife) has cooked lunch for us every day and sitting in her living room after construction has been something of a refuge for us this month. She’s remembered the foods we like and cooks them often, and prepares fresh pineapple juice because we love it so much.
Our pastor laughs at us no matter what we do or say because he finds so much joy in us being here. When we got to the construction site, he had this look on his face, “they sent me a bunch of American girls to build my church?!” But he has continually made us laugh and welcomed us into his home.
Our host Pato and his wife Silvi live downstairs with their two kids. Pato has driven us an hour each way to the construction site every day and has never complained or grown weary of helping us. He brings water bubbles upstairs because he doesn’t want us to bear the weight of 5 gallons of clean drinking water. Sylvia has prayed for us every day and never fails to tell us how thankful she is for us.
Our little apartment has become our home and we can’t believe it’s already time to leave. We have become so good at settling in quickly and finding “Home” as soon as our heads hit our pillows on the first night. We’ve also gotten really good at saying goodbye. Tears threaten but we now know to say goodbye quickly and walk out the door before we feel the edges of our hearts start to fray.
We only have one more opportunity to make our home on the field and fall in love with the people and say goodbye to a country. It’s agonizing, even though we’ve done it so many times. Leaving people you love is never easy.
In just a few short weeks, we are also going to say the hardest goodbye that we’ve had since we left home. We are going to say goodbye to each other and hold as tight to each other in spirit as we can. We’ve developed a family with each other. My squad is now my family- my brothers and sisters. They are my cheerleaders and my friends. They have walked through heartbreak, war, failures and sadness with me. We have also experienced joy beyond words, successes, growth, and the world together. I’m not even ready to think about this yet, so for now, this is all I’ll say: I’M OBSESSED WITH YOU WEIRDOS!!!
I hate goodbyes. I’ve honestly never been good at them and I think I may be worse at it now. I’ve now said goodbye to 10 hosts, hundreds of children, a million dogs, 10 countries, and countless experiences that will forever be part of my heart.
Goodbyes are hard. But only because we dared to love and to love with all our hearts. Love always leaves a mark.
By now my heart is surely a mangled mess of scars as I’ve loved big and said goodbye often. But I bet it’s also more beautiful than when I started the race.
Love costs, but it is always, ALWAYS worth it.
