"Its always sad when someone leaves home, unless they are simply going around the corner and will return in a few minutes with ice-cream sandwiches."
-Lemony Snickett
This summer, within a few months of each other, two of the very dearest people in my life have moved away from me. Now, it's not quite that dramatic. One only moved an extra 30 minutes away from me, and the other...well...he's 8 hours away...that's far.
We are BFFs. She was beside me when I got married, in the "danger zone" when I gave birth. We've had many an evening of too much coffee, food and shopping. We see crappy dollar movies just to eat popcorn. We will drive way out of the way to find an Olgas. I consider her daughter my own. I will walk in her door, rummage through her pantry, and plop down in her living room without a second thought. She hates my music, and I hate hers, but we will sing each others songs at the top of our lungs because we love each other. We are BFFs. If she was moving 8 hours away, I'm sure I would die. I'm not exaggerating. I would cease to exist. Luckily for me, she's just moving to South Bend. Which is so much further than the down the road I've become so accustomed to. (What will I do when I think I lost my contact in my eye early in the morning? I can't drive all the way to South Bend with one eye closed!) Carrie is doing amazing things, she is stepping out in faith in a big, real way. I love her for that. I know things will change, and sometimes, if I dwell to much on it...(like right now)...then I get a bit weepy. But I also know that 30 minutes will not change our unhealthy love of coffee and popcorn, or our addiction to shopping, and the dollar movie is almost a nice 1/2 way point! These seemly meaningless interactions (that mean so much to me) may just have to be fewer and farther between. Which is probably good...cause I'm broke. I'm thankful for the friendship we had, in the time we had it, and I'm excited to see our friendship evolve and grow in the future. (I know this has been cheesy...but I don't know if I said this or not...we are BFFS! Seriously. Besties. I'm allowed to be a bit sappy.)
Now this will take a little more getting used to. My baby brother moved to Rochester Minnesota this summer to be a worship leader at a church plant out there. He too is doing great big things and stepping out in faith (why is everyone else doing big things...I'm just sitting here...literally...another post for another day). I feel so proud of him. Like randomly telling people who may or may not know who he is. I've watched Brent grow up. Really. I was there all the time. I watched him do a lot of cool things, and a lot of things that still make me cringe. When I watched him in Rochester, I felt a swell of pride. That's my baby brother. Doing something with his life. And not something for himself, but he's dedicated his life to the Lord, and sacrificed everything to follow him. That is cool. I'm glad he's doing what he's doing. I really am.
I am NOT glad he's doing it 8 hours away.
Especially because Lucy just learned to say his name....well..she says "Butt", but she means "Brent". She loves him. She's a lucky little kid, with lots of "uncles" who love her, laugh with her, and teach her to do things she gets in trouble for. But there is a special connection with Brent. I didn't realize it until just recently. She's pretty comfortable with him, riding around on his shoulders and playing little people with him. And when we get into the car, or I tell her we are going to Grandma's, she only asks for "Butt". Not Joe, or Jacob, or Michael (who is also "Jacob") She loves him, and will continue to love her "Cool Uncle Brent".
We will miss him, but he's not gone forever. And 8 hours isn't THAT far. All I can say is, he better be around during Christmas.
