Gettin' Good at Good-bye

This has been a month full of good-byes for us.

It all started with my husband leaving for NTC. The following week my daughter had four girls leave her dance class...on the same day. Today was her dance instructor's last day, and in the afternoon we said good-bye to a friend I had made at my MOPS group.

(For anyone who has/has had/has seen small children before:) You know when a three-year-old is having fun at a friend's house and you tell them it's time to leave? That's the reaction I've been confronted with now for about 2 weeks straight...but from my inner-self.

I was talking to someone today about this and said that good-byes are always hard simply because you will miss the person that is going away. But they are also difficult because a part of yourself can't help feeling like you are being left behind. People move onward to their next chapter in life while you're stuck on the same page.

And what I didn't tell her but decided later is that maybe I also dislike them so much because it forces me to make a change myself. I like talking to my husband everyday and having him come home. I enjoyed watching my daughter play with and get to know those four girls (not to mention I really enjoyed talking to their mothers.) I really liked my daughter's dance instructor and thought she was sweet and personable and well-qualified. I liked knowing a friendly face when I walked into a MOPS meeting. I really liked the place I was at and now, suddenly, I have been removed from that comfortable spot. I feel displaced. And honestly, that kind of scares me.

My plan, as it always is, is to keep rolling with the punches. (You kind of have to when you're in the military.) I find peace in the fact that oftentimes "good-byes" go hand-in-hand with "hello-agains." Doors closing lead to windows opening. Sweet endings give birth to new beginnings. And best of all (and the one I'm looking forward to the most) "I'll be back soons" turn into "welcome home, Daddys."