Farewell Weekend

I have so much to post about, so I’ll just start at the beginning. Last weekend, March 7-10th, was my Mother and Father-in-Law’s mission farewell, and everyone made it down for the occasion. It was so fun to get to see everyone and to have all of us together, even if it was for just a short weekend. People started arriving on Friday evening and since Andy and I are now living at Mom and Dad’s house we got to be in the middle of all the excitement. Jesse and Debbie arrived first, then shortly after Tony and Kerry came with their two kids Logan and Avery. As soon as they had settled in we had dinner (haystacks) and then sat around visiting.

Saturday proved to be more eventful. We woke up and got ready, and then more cousins, brothers and sisters started showing up. Dave and Marlene’s family also arrived Friday night but they stayed the weekend at Suzie’s house. So Saturday morning they all made their way over. The oldest cousins (Taylor, Aaron, Jared) decided to go and burn the huge trash pile that had accumulated down by the barn. This was a good activity for them; it kept them busy and gave them something to do. Andy decided he would get a start on our fence and went out and cut a bunch of posts. I started getting a little stir crazy in the house so I went and found him and took some pictures. Later that night was a BIG family party over at Kirk and Heidi’s house. They invited ALL of the cousins and Aunts and Uncles that could come and we had hamburgers on the grill. It was really fun to see everyone, I think Mom and Dad really appreciated the party, it was the perfect send off.
Sunday morning was Garrett’s baby blessing. Everyone came over around 10:00 for the special event. He was so cute all dressed in his blessing outfit, and Jody and James looked so proud. Then we were off to church for the farewell. Mom and Dad both gave awesome talks. The congregation was full! It was also Skylar Crofts’ homecoming so it was a GREAT meeting. After church we went back to the house for lunch. We had BBQ beef and pork sandwiches with an assortment of salads. The whole rest of the day we just sat around visiting until the Steak Presidency came over to set them apart as missionaries. Then the goodbyes started. This was a very sad thing to watch as their kids and grandkids each gave them hugs and kisses and said their goodbyes.
Monday morning Mom and Dad woke up around 5:00 AM to head north to the MTC. They will be serving 18 months in the Ghana Cape Coast Mission. They will never actually get to step foot in Ghana, instead they will be in a little country called Benin. The church is still very new in Benin, there is only 1 branch with about 150 members. The entire country is French speaking, Dad already knows French from his mission to France when he was 19, but this will be a whole new experience for Mom, but she will do great!