Bittersweet

The past few weeks have been full of planning and preparations, visiting friends and family, and saying goodbyes before my flight out of MD leaves tomorrow evening. It has been a whirlwind and I feel like I've been running around like crazy lately!

Visited with my dad's side of the fam in VA.

 

Visited with my mom's side of the fam in MI.

Visited my old church CCBL and got to watch baptisms where I was baptized!

Had a great farewell dinner/fundraiser. The ladies in this pic (along with Danielle) are such a blessing and planned & ran everything for me! The guys in this pic were our awesome clean up crew!

Spent a lot of time with amazing friends and shed lots of tears saying goodbye and thinking about leaving!

 

 

This has definitely been a bittersweet time. I think I've used that word about 50 billion times the last few months. I am so so excited to be heading to Haiti, but also so sad to leave my community here. But I tell ya what, there's nothing like leaving to remind you of how grateful you are for the people in your life. God has really blessed me the last few years with some absolutely incredible people to encourage and pour into me, and to just have fun with! The crew, Silver Spring, MBC staff fam - I'm going to miss everyone so much! I've worried a little bit about feeling isolated, alone, and out of touch while in Haiti, but you all have made me feel so loved and supported! I am also really looking forward to the new community God will build while I am in Haiti. I'm sure it's going to be vastly different than my community back home, but I'm praying that it will be just as sweet. From what I can tell, there are some really wonderful people serving the Lord at Sonlight right now and I'm so excited to finally meet them!

So today I am tying up all my loose ends, unpacking/prioritizing/repacking my bags that I can tell are over the 50lb limit, reviewing all my travel information, probably shedding a few more tears, and praising God both for what He has done in my life the last couple years and what He is going to do in the next couple years. Thank you to everyone for their kind words, encouragement, and support. It means more than you know! I'll do my best to keep this blog thing updated and let you all know how I'm doing! A new home tour has already been requested, so be on the look out for that soon! :)

T-minus 29 hours!