Two Week Countdown- So sad!

The two-week "farewell to Pasadena" countdown is moving along quickly. I'm getting all sorts of sentimental, so if you live in Pasadena, watch out. All you have to say is, "hey!" and I will launch into a monologue on how much I love you and appreciate you. Its all just too much.

2 years may not seem like a long time, but it has been enough time to settle in some roots and build up a family away from home. It is proving tough to say good-bye to all of that family, plus I hate good-byes so that doesn't help. They just seem so final. Everything changes when you have to say good-bye. Just writing the word so much makes me sad. But back to the point.

Tonight I said good-bye to one of the sweetest families I have ever known. Their three kids are amazing, and I have loved being silly and watching movies with them over the last years. They are one of two families that have been amazing additions to my life since moving West. I think their kids all rock, and if these 2 families wanted to get a big communal house where I could live with them and hang out all the time, I would absolutely do it. I cannot even explain how amazing they are.

Add this to my morning, when I took out "my baby" for our last outing. I have been his nanny for two years, parenting him for 22 hours a week, and I love him as much as I love anyone in this world. The thought of not being a regular part of his life is tough. I am attached and I don't want to let go!

At this point, I'm not going to lie, 2-week-countdown-Meredith is getting a little teary-eyed. It is kind of sad to me that sometimes we don't realize the full extent of our love for people until we have to leave them. But perhaps it is a beauty that accompanies the sadness so that the sadness doesn't win. These kids and their parents have been my family in Pasadena. I have loved making obstacle courses in the backyard, building forts, and chatting with their moms when they are finally asleep, and I wouldn't trade that for anything. They have let me into their lives, and life in Pasadena wouldn't have been the same without them.

So what do I take away as I move on? Well, first I take away the hope that I can always be the crazy former babysitter lady that sends books on their birthdays. I definitely want to be that lady. But even more than that I leave knowing that these families have given me more than pizza and paychecks.  They have shown me the beauty that is family, and I will always look back on them with love and appreciation.

The good-byes are inevitable in these next weeks, but so are the adventures, the memories, and the recognition of the great love and family I have here in Pasadena.

I better grab the tissues.

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