Joyful hellos, tearful goodbyes

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My life has been littered with goodbyes.
From second grade all the way through high school dear friends came and went.
Elise, Suzanne, Danelle, Sarah, all left in grade school.
The only good thing that came of that is that each paved the way for the other.
And I got really good at goodbyes.

This week I got to say hello again to a very dear friend from high school.
Tabitha moved to Roseau when I was in 9th grade.
We were fast friends and had tons of fun (and made a little bit of trouble).
Tab moved down to Stillwater my Junior year but we stayed in close contact.
Fast forward to rooming together, going through boyfriends and finally meeting our spouses.
Weddings just months apart, first babies also months apart.
Our lives were intertwined permanently.
But our goodbyes were not over.

Tabitha and Ted moved to Montana a few years ago.
The right move for them, a tough one for me.
Now our correspondence is brief phone conversations interrupted on both ends by screaming children.
Text messages to mark special days or holidays.
Emails for the things we want to say but don't have time to call about.
Cards of encouragement.
Prayers lifted to the Almighty to cover each other in the midst of trials.

I got to say hello again to Tabitha this week.
She and her two kids came and spend a night with us.
It was wonderful and far too short.
We had fun catching up, yelling at each other's kids (and of course our own), talking about spouses, families and friends.
We stayed up far too late and were up far too early (kids...).
Tears of joy at hello, tears of sadness at goodbye.
A lot of laughter in between.


Sam took this picure, the only one I have of Tab and I together on my camera!

Attempt #1

Attempt #2

Attempt #3!
Sam, Claire, Paige, Parker and Caleb

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