31 for 21: Friends moving away

Mommy reporting: Some of our good friends are moving tomorrow. Their girls and ours are just the best of buds…  they are like 4 peas in a very cute and sometimes dramatic pod, though each has their own beautiful little traits.

I’m sad they’re leaving for a variety of reasons, though we are also so excited for them and this new ministry that God has clearly directed them toward.  It’s always hard to lose people that we like, of course. But I’ve found that when we connect with people who have the same values about parenting, see the importance of teaching things from an eternal perspective and not just the “easy way out” option, and who fully accept the fact that our family is a little different with the nuances that Braska brings to the mix and yet never blink at including her and us completely with open arms, it’s harder still.

Braska is included in the fun with no hesitation. These silly girls (and the boys who are also around sometimes from other families in our life group) play with Braska without discrimination. She sometimes acts strangely in ways that would seem to make them notice, but kids are great at just going with it.  Moaning is just noise, some of them put their hands in their mouths sometimes, too, and they don’t seem to care that there’s more chips and cookies for each of them since she’s not into chewing snacks.  They know she likes milk, and only milk, and they know she always has it with her. 

While Braska is the oldest of the 9 kids involved in our life group, she’s right at the same height as most of them, with a couple of the 5-year-old boys being taller.  She can’t quite keep up when they run in the yard, though she’s tries hard and has a BLAST doing so.  She laughs at them, tells jokes, and loves to see these kids as often as she can.

But she asks every day to go to Ella’s house.  Literally. And tomorrow, Ella’s house will be in Indiana, not a few blocks away.  And though Braska doesn’t seem to grasp the whole element of moving and them not living here anymore, Kinlee does, and it is breaking her heart.  And that’s been hard for me to watch, but that’s for another day.

When the trucks roll out tomorrow, our life group will be made up of families with boys. And us.  And that’s if we remain in tact as a group, since this family was the hub. And though I’m trying to be all “yay for new things,” I’m not yet over my sadness that great members of our family’s cheering section are moving too far to see every week.

The girls are excited to Skype, and that will be priceless I’m sure.  I mean, come on….  won’t this translate well via computer??

(I love that when they’re released from “princess smiles” and allowed to do “crazy faces,” they all go for the same one… love it.)