I'm not much good...

... at saying good-bye.

I knew the day was coming when we would have to say good-bye to two of the people that have inspired us most in our marriage.  We were lucky enough to meet Kelle and Dan, or as everyone lovingly calls them, Gramma Lei and Papa Dan, about 5 years ago, shortly after I moved Hawaii.  We quickly started to learn things from them that we never knew we could or wanted to learn.  They became stable people in our sometimes tumultuous lives.

It's hard to express the remorse I feel that our country is kicking them out.  Kelle has worked in Hawaii for 7 years and lost her job recently.  They are now being deported back to Canada, which is where they are from.  They leave tomorrow.

Here are some of the things that I have learned from the 5 years that we have gotten to spend with them.

• God is always Sovereign
• The Jesus is the ONLY way to salvation. 
• There will be fiery furnaces in our lives
• The people that matter most won't ever be far away
• It's okay to ask people for help, even if you don't want to
• Sometimes family is what you make of the people that are around you.
• Unconditional love from a father figure
• How to be better parents by sometimes doing the hard thing
• How to study and learn God's word in all aspects of life
• That our house is meant to have people in and out of it.  One of my spiritual gifts is hospitality.
• I am stronger than I give myself credit for
• How to be a better wife by being a better person
• The I am NOT having a heart attack because my chest muscles are a little sore and that my sore back is NOT a pulmonary embolism
• It's okay to wake someone up in the middle of the night if you have a medical question that can't wait
• That the age old argument of nature v. nurture has an answer:  it's BOTH.  Jared takes after both Gramma Lei and Papa.  It is quite amazing to see.
• It truly takes a village to raise a child..... heck, it takes a village to nurture an adult
• That I am a really, really lucky person to be able to say that I knew both these wonderful people.

Tomorrow isn't really good-bye, it's more of a see you later.  I KNOW it won't be the last time we see them.  I KNOW that they are meant to be part of our lives for a really long time.  Jared will miss them terribly.  He has grown incredibly attached to both of these wonderful people.  He thinks Papa hung the moon and the stars, and he's convinced that Gramma Lei can do no wrong.  I am not sure how to explain to a 2 and a half year old where the two people he loves most after his parents are going.  I just know that they will always be in his prayers.  They will always be a part of his growing up.  They will always be part of our lives.