So I lit my candle(saved from the movers) and created a safe place in the corner of the sofa that is sold but not gone yet, and decided to have some quiet time ..to write, pray and probably cry a little.
Moving is physically hard but what was harder this past week was watching the things we sold go out the door. We are keeping little of what we collected over the last almost 9 years in the Gulf Region. Most we are selling and giving away to our friends here in Doha. (Still have quite a bit to sell and give away, which may account for some of the insomnia.). But it's been hard to see it go. It's what it represents that I realized was grabbing me. Our family nights at the patio table. The birthdays celebrated at the dining table purchased weeks after arriving in Abu Dhabi. The friends who shared heart to heart conversations on the sofas and chairs. Coffee time with those mugs. Teenage laughter on that ikea chair or the wicker swing in the game room. Ryan's comforter. Sallie's planter painted just for me. Russell's fishing pole when he decompressed from Kabul and visited all those times in Abu Dhabi. That table where I sat when I learned of my brother's death. And that corner of the couch where Talitha and Russell chose their diamond for her ring. All the stuff that bears witness to us.. To the Hildebrands. The good and yes, the bad. Because I have done this all my life and because I know God keeps his promises, I know new adventures await. I will sleep again. The stuff may come and go but the memories are the real treasures...and all the people in our lives who make them. Now I think I'll take that cry time I mentioned.
Moving is physically hard but what was harder this past week was watching the things we sold go out the door. We are keeping little of what we collected over the last almost 9 years in the Gulf Region. Most we are selling and giving away to our friends here in Doha. (Still have quite a bit to sell and give away, which may account for some of the insomnia.). But it's been hard to see it go. It's what it represents that I realized was grabbing me. Our family nights at the patio table. The birthdays celebrated at the dining table purchased weeks after arriving in Abu Dhabi. The friends who shared heart to heart conversations on the sofas and chairs. Coffee time with those mugs. Teenage laughter on that ikea chair or the wicker swing in the game room. Ryan's comforter. Sallie's planter painted just for me. Russell's fishing pole when he decompressed from Kabul and visited all those times in Abu Dhabi. That table where I sat when I learned of my brother's death. And that corner of the couch where Talitha and Russell chose their diamond for her ring. All the stuff that bears witness to us.. To the Hildebrands. The good and yes, the bad. Because I have done this all my life and because I know God keeps his promises, I know new adventures await. I will sleep again. The stuff may come and go but the memories are the real treasures...and all the people in our lives who make them. Now I think I'll take that cry time I mentioned.