Family good bye

“Stop poking the anemones, Mom!” Amanda chided me. I was trying to get one to squirt, with no success. Later she checked back to be sure I got off the big rocks where the tide pools were safely. Darrick checked back at the end of our hill climb to make sure I was with them. These were marks of the change in our relationships.

All week they helped take care of managing our activities. Amanda planned and made a couple of great meals and helped me with the rest.

She already knows more about cooking than I do. Jennifer checked out local sites to visit and the details on location and cost. We all joined her to visit the Yaquina Lighthouse and the nearby tide pools. Darrick facilitated some basketball playing with Gary and some other young vacationers. He even beat Gary at HORSE. When I had quick volunteers to clean up the kitchen, I knew things had changed. We even got along pretty well after the four of us there Monday morning prayed together for our week.

When Gary first proposed the beach week, I objected to leaving town a week early. I also wondered how Amanda and Darrick would take being away from Longview and the people in that area for that time. I also doubted our civility would last out a week in close quarters.

The frenzy of the last week of packing made me thankful for the week away. The week also gave me a chance to finish the 3 ½ books on Thailand and the book on Jesus’ teaching methods I hoped to return before we left.

Amanda did struggle with not being “home” and not having a car. The great weather, the whale sightings, our own Internet connection, and Bryan helped her through.

It was the trip to Eugene for Christmas that crystallized the hole we are leaving for our children. They will no longer have a place to stay in while visiting people in the Northwest. Then, to visit the larger family, they will have to make their own arrangements. If they are going to get together, they will have to coordinate their plans.

Christmas will be different for all of us from now on.

Our good byes were less tearful than I expected. Amanda had decided she will see us about as often as she does now. I pray that she will know we do love her and not hold any resentment toward us for doing this.

After Gary drove off with Bryan, Amanda, and Darrick, I went back in to more sorting, tossing away, packing, and reading. By 10 pm everything was done, even the last book.

The next morning Jennifer and I got it all in the car and took off. One more excursion, to the Voodoo Doughnut shop in Portland for a bacon maple bar for Jennifer, and we made it to Longview. A few more good byes, some last packing and errands, and then squishing everything into Jennifer’s smallish Malibu and we were off for Bremerton. The last stop was the credit union after we found a money order gift in a Christmas card. Providently, Gary walked in there just in time to put his signature on one last form they had run across.

Jennifer drove us to Bremerton and to breakfast and the airport the next morning. Our last good bye was to her as she dropped us off.