Loose ends and goodbyes

 

In His extreme generosity we received John’s visa on August 4th, weeks before expected. We had contemplated moving up our departure date since we move out of our apartment on September 1st. In His generosity, again, we were not only able to move our tickets to September 4th, we’ve also changed our arrival location to Cardiff and will only be a 12 mile ride from our new “alleged” apartment. With 6 pieces of luggage this should be much easier. As far as our apartment, I say “alleged” because we haven’t received confirmation as of yet. The hope is we’ll hear back today.

 

On to goodbyes. We’ve been to Florida to say goodbye to my mother and Chicago to say goodbye to daughter #3. Daughter #1 flew in this past weekend and we spent time with her and daughters #2, #4 and #5. We dropped off daughter #4 at college this week, and now we have a week to spend with #2 and #5. We’ve had coffees and dinners and have more scheduled over the next 9 days. It is all so bittersweet. We will have our same cell numbers and email, we’ll be able to FaceTime, Zoom and WhatsApp although it’s not the same as face to face interaction. This is the only hardship in this endeavor. We will be missing you all terribly. There will always be a longing to be together, a homesickness while we are gone. The Welsh word for this is “hiraeth” there is no English word. The definition of hiraeth is “a deep sense of longing, a yearning for that which is past, a sense of homesickness with a sense of grief or sorrow”. I personally believe it is the Lord who puts this sense of homesickness and longing inside us, and only He can satisfy the longing. I believe the people of Wales experience grief and sorrow due to not knowing Christ and our hope is that, in some way, we will have a part in their coming to know Jesus as their friend and Savior.

 

I am encouraged by the truth that we will return home at some point, we will keep in touch and hopefully have many visits with friends and family and then I suppose we will experience this same “hiraeth” when it’s time to come home to Georgia.