Goodbyes

We started saying our goodbyes. It started at the end of May when my parents drove down to take Emma with them to Colorado until Jess and I drive there at the end of this month. We had to witness Emma say farewell to her best friend from school, and then at a dinner get together she had to say goodbye to her second family. It was a difficult event for all of us, these people have all played an important role in Emma's life. She will never forget CT and Suz, and Uncle Jason and Aunt Kristi.

This week we had a little going away party for Jess and I to say goodbye to some of the people we have met since moving to Arizona two years ago. It actually meant more to me than I had originally thought that it would. I had led myself to believe that having not been here too long meant that I really had not made any real meaningful connections. I was wrong! The night was wonderful and I realized that I had indeed made some good friends from some great people.

The hardest goodbye of all happened day before yesterday. We had to say goodbye to our beloved Casper. He was, or rather is the GREATEST dog ever. We got him six years ago as a birthday gift for Emma and since the moment we picked him up he made all of our lives brighter. There have been gallons of tears shed this week, and they just keep coming. We will be on our way to Colorado in a little over a week, and we will redo the entire goodbye process at least two more times for all of our family and friends there.

Goodbyes are difficult especially with those who have impacted our lives so greatly. I will however take away great memories of those people (and dog) and look back on them whenever I need to brighten my day. If we live our lives afraid to say goodbye, then we will never grow to our full potential.