Loving and Leaving

It is so good to be well loved.

And it is so hard to leave.

I am excited to be living in Morocco now, but it comes at a GREAT cost of 4,142 miles of distance from our family and friends who we love so much.



After I finished going through security in Cincinnati (TSA Precheck for everyone! Hurray!), I could still see my sisters and nieces standing at the security entrance.

We stood there blowing kisses and waving at each other for a while. Ezra was yelling "I love you Sarah" and I was crying too hard to yell back anything that she could hear.

I loved living so close to my family and being able to visit all the time and see those sweet girls change every time I was back.

I hope we can make the most of FaceTime/Instagram/etc - that's why I got an iPad!

I'm so grateful for the last week of time we had together before I left. Jessica was an amazing hostess and had so much fun, including making colored volcanoes with Pippi Longstocking.

(We've got a great TV show we made together about volcanoes that I'll try to upload if I can figure that out.)

Columbus was the city of friendship for me. Deep, deep relationships that endured hard times over 8 years. I remember moving to Columbus in the winter of 2006-07 not knowing many people at all, spending time with my nose in books trying to learn how to invest the money my Grandpa had just given me for Christmas.

8 years later, we had the goodbye party of our lives with all of my closest Cbus friends. It was amazing.

Super fun.
Super memorable.
Super meaningful.


Cory and I got to do a little Moroccan Arabic faux conversation, in which we cracked ourselves up :)

And we were sent home with an incredible scrapbook which we of course brought with us to Morocco.




Leaving Columbus friends started to sink in the Saturday night before I left - and resulted in me sobbing in the church lobby the next morning in Karla's sweet embrace. The day I left, I started crying again in the lobby of the J. Bentley Spa with Ann, shamelessly begging her to keep hanging out with me for the rest of the day.

I'd been crying about leaving friends and family for a few months before leaving. And, if the crying I did while writing this post is any evidence, the grieving of leaving isn't over yet.