the beginning of the end

It started today. The beginning of the end. The last few weeks of going to worship with our amazing spiritual family has been getting progressively harder and today I realized that our days are getting very short to be together in close community with this part of the body. This week I will actually begin to pack our belongings...again. Three new babies have been born in our body in the last two weeks and I may not be here for their showers. This Sunday we will speak in our church for the last time as members. I realized that our little girl can't really be dedicated in this fellowship because the committement to help us raise her needs to come from the new community that we'll be moving to, not the one we have been part of for 16 years. I'm working on the last project with my first Hope spiritual mama that we'll do together for a very long time.

Things are winding down and picking up at the same time. We know our starting dates and our moving dates, we've picked colors for our house and know where some of the furniture will be. We're making plans for events that we want to coordinate with youth in the city so that our rural youth and the city youth can build bridges. We're excited about the new adventures, the new friends and the fulfillment of dreams. It doesn't get much better than this. I'm looking forward just a little to planting all that garden space (still a little freaked out by how much there is, but a little anticipation is rising). My son was revelling in the fact that there'll be so much grass to play soccer on and so much fresh air out at the farm. The three year old refers to it as 'his' farm.

So much to do, so many people to see, so little time to do it in.

So today I started crying over the beginning of the end of life as I've known it.