More goodbyes....Cat left this morning. Ryan leaves on Friday. Cat to New Hampshire and Ryan back to Texas.
It was a quiet, loving, community send-off for Cat this morning. A gray and rainy morning. Matt Murray, Elizabeth Herron, and the Havens joined our household for morning prayers at 7:00. Others trickled in .... Julie Thompson, the Rains family, Kenny O, Aaron and Sarah and Chloe....Kevin remarked the atmosphere was like a funeral and he felt he should have brought a covered dish. It was a bit somber. Not really a happy occasion, yet in some ways it is a celebration. A celebration of how Cat became a loving and vital part of our family. She shared our laughter and tears. She loved our children as her own. She blessed us with her gifts of faith and perseverance and encouragement, and left them behind with us to share with others. We celebrate with joy the year she lived with us, and we look forward to her visiting with us again and telling us about the new chapter she's now beginning in her life....one God led her to through her time with us. We're all thankful to have Cat in our family...she'll always be one of our "kids". So we all stood in the rain and waved good-bye as she tearfully got in her car and drove down the road.
And on Friday we'll repeat this for Ryan....because we love him, too. He also has shared his gifts of wisdom, responsibility, thoughtfulness. He's shared his struggles and listened patiently to ours. He's offered words of encouragement, prayers of blessing, and always been willing to do whatever has been asked of him...it will be hard to let him go as well. Yet we are blessed to have shared this moment in his life, and will continue to be blessed as he's now a permanent part of our family.
Interns will come and go. That's the plan. Come live with us for a period of time, learn from us, teach us, share life with us, enrich us....then take what they've learned to share with others, and we'll take what we've learned and pass it on to more interns. Yet we remain family....family in the body of Christ. Thanks be to God.
