And the Journey Continues: Don't cry because it's over........

Matheus says goodbye to Hershey:(

Today was a very hard day…..we said good-bye to our boy. We had to drop him off in Huntersville this morning at about 10:30 am. On the way to Huntersville....we videotaped an interview with him about his exchange experience....I had a list of questions I had come up with and he answered them for me.....it is something we will ALWAYS treasure!

Matheus and Marco were the last ones to arrive and it was very rushed. Matheus didn’t have his luggage tags so he had to complete them when we got there. He had to text his mom to get the right zip so it was a little franic. All the other kids were inside a gym there at the church and just a couple of volunteers were out in the entryway where we were. Nigel, Nyles and Ellen were there and Ellen asked if she could go inside to say good-bye to Daniel…..a kid from Austria that stayed with her and her boys a lot throughout the year. The volunteers from AFS would not allow her to go inside but sent someone in to get Daniel and bring him out so she could say goodbye to him. We hugged Matheus and took one last pic together but it was SOOO hard....not just for us as Ellen was in tears there at the church.

A lot of the other kids were out there also so there wasn’t an opportunity to really talk to him….he texted us later in the day saying that the time was going by slowly as they were scheduled to stay there until 4 PM. They were supposed to go through some type of orientation to assist them in dealing with the goodbyes….but we had no information about this orientation….I had wished there was such an orientation for us as it was very difficult. I cried all the way home and my hubby shed some tears also. We are really going to miss this kid. What am I going to miss the most…his humor….his smile….his energy…..he is such a great kid….he brought SOOO much joy into our lives this past year…..more than I could ever express. It has been a GREAT experience! He promised he would keep in touch but we all know how life is….we will just have to make extra effort NOT to lose touch! Both Tommy and I wrote something to him….but told him not to read it until later….as we didn’t want to break down in front of him….but we wanted him to know how we felt. I also sent a card to his mom….in an attempt to express my gratitude to her for sharing her youngest boy with us.

My wonderful husband had such an awesome way of reminding me not to be sad....he kept telling me not to be sad that it is over but be happy that it happened! :) I LOVE that man!