Sweet Goodbyes

In the weeks and days leading up to our departure for Singapore, our families and friends went out of their way to make us feel special. While we’ve recently had several major blessings to be thankful for, I find that I’m constantly amazed with the wonderful families both Matt and I have along with the sweetest friends we could ever imagine. Back in May, five amazing ladies took time out of their busy schedules to take a road trip with me to Pensacola Beach, FL. I can’t even begin to describe how much fun we had. In early June, Matt and I went to VA for two of my closest friend’s weddings (which happened to be on back-to-back days) and to spend time with my family. During that trip, a goodbye party was hosted for us at PF Changs. My entire family was there plus 6 other wonderful friends that we don’t get to see nearly enough. On our final night in Katy, TX, 16 of our awesome friends threw us a goodbye party with a surprise USA theme (so we don’t forget where we’re from!). They showered us with American flag clothing, fed us every type of true American food you can think of and decked the house out in red, white and blue. Finally, our very last night in the USA was spent in Dallas with Matt’s family. His parents, along with one of his sisters and our precious nephew and sweet, baby niece took us out to dinner. In addition to the goodbye parties, we were invited to lunch or dinner by nearly every friend we have. Each of the parties and meals left us with bittersweet feelings. On the one hand, we were so very thankful to have people in our lives who love us enough to want to make our send off as special as possible. On the other hand, we couldn’t help but feel sad about leaving such a wonderful community of family and friends. I speak for both Matt and I when I say that although it’s only been a little over a week since we left, we truly miss everyone…we feel just a little bit, well…empty. However, we know that leaving such awesome people will make our homecoming 10x better! We just wanted to say a great big thanks to everyone for all you did in the last month. So here’s to the best families and friends in the world! God certainly knew what He was doing when He put each of you in our lives!

Pensacola Beach Road Trip! And just incase you're wondering, yes, it's extremely cool to wear matching souvenir shirts ;-)

Our goodbye party at PF Changs in VA.

Our USA themed goodbye party. Matt and I wore the correct colors even though we had no idea everyone else was going to be wearing red, white and blue. It was meant to be!

The morning after our dinner with Matt's family.