The things (aka people) I will miss...

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We had a nice, lowkey 4th of July weekend. We drove down the morning of the 3rd and met my parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew at Yale Lake (about thirty min away from La Center) for a day of sunshine, boating, food, napping, laughter, and of course-- good conversation. It was glorious. We spent Saturday in the Portland area, first watching my dad march with one of his community bands in a 4th of July parade (Amelia got about five million pieces of candy from everyone throwing it...lucky girl) and then just enjoying some more laidback family time at the Stabler's house. That evening, Martin, my parents and I went out to dinner and to see the movie 'Up', the newest Pixar creation. If you haven't seen it yet, GO! It's an amazing movie, one that will leave you both impressed with the animation (as always) but also with tears from the storyline. I'm now down here in the Vancouver/Portland area for the week spending some extra time with my parents and sister/her family, and Martin's back up in Bellevue with his parents. I miss him, but we have the whole next year together, without our families. 😊

One of the most common questions we've been getting lately is some form of "What are you going to miss about Seattle/Washington/The PacNW/The United States?" And in trying to answer it, I've realized how very little I'm going to miss as far as 'things' go. Western conveniences, eh. I'll get by. Surely I'll miss Seattle, but not in the same ways I'm going to miss the people here.

I had my first true moment of sadness about this while we were in California. I spent about ten minutes hugging and calming down my six year old niece after she was teased relentlessly by another family member (I won't mention any names...😊) and upon telling her to come to me anytime she needed to, she bawled even harder and in between gasps said "But how can I do that when you're all the way in CHINA?!" Holding back tears myself, I explained to her that she could write me letters (or have Mom help write emails) anytime she wanted and that I would try to talk to her on video chat as much as possible. It was the first moment that reality truly hit me. I'm not going to see or touch many people in my life for almost an entire year. Fortunately things like Skype and Gmail chat have obviously made staying in touch a thousand times easier, but it certainly won't be the same. I won't be able to watch my niece and nephew grow in front of my eyes and be confident in the fact that they'll run to me with hugs and yelling "tati!" as soon as I walk in the door.

This also reminds me how lucky Martin and I both are to be so close to our families. I could honestly live in the same city, maybe even the same neighborhood, as both sets of parents & my siblings. Amelia told us the other day to move across the street from her when we get back from China. Maybe someday...😊

Don't worry, friends, I surely haven't forgotten about how much I'm going to miss you. Moving to Corvallis and then to Seattle has shown me how truly difficult it can be to stay in touch with people, no matter how close you consider yourself. It's just not the same when you aren't there to share the day-to-day laughter and stories, and quickly you realize you've grown apart from some. There are those friendships that pick up right where you left off, but those are rare and hard to find. We're trying to soak up time with friends in the next few weeks, never knowing where life is going to take all of us, when we'll get to see some people again.

So, to answer the question, I don't think I'll miss anyTHING (although I'll probably start to appreciate Western toilets more...)...it's the people in my life that I see on a daily or even monthly basis that I'll miss getting to laugh with in person, eat dinner with, hug. Then again, it's only ten months. 😊

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