A goodbye

We said goodbye to Brady last night. For those of you who don't know who Brady is, he is John's brother and he is heading off to three months of boot camp and an additional three months of medic training. We had our family farewell last night and thankfully, it was filled with lots of laughter and only a few tears.

We stayed at the in-laws until around midnight when John and I finally gave it up for the boys' sake. They did a great job staying awake, but it was clear that they were going to totally lose it at some point. As we got everything together and said our final goodbyes to Brady, I began to tear up. Now, I will miss Brady. We've always gotten along really well and he's just a fun guy to be around, so I am sad that he won't be here for six months. But the tears started while I watched him say goodbye to Aiden. Aiden LOVES his Uncle Brady (they share an intense love of trains) and asks for him often. Aiden is too young to really understand that Uncle Brady is going away for a while and he really won't understand why he won't get to see him at Grandma's house on Sundays. So, that hit me last night as we were leaving and I got all teary over it. I think I also got a little emotional for my sister-in-law, Carrie (yes, the two brothers married Carries). I can't imagine letting my husband leave for six months and I am continually amazed at her strength through everything she takes on. She will be in our thoughts daily over the next six months and hopefully we can see her often. For those of you who might like to keep up with her and Brady, she has a great blog and the link is in my blog list on the right, under 'Brady and Carrie Minthorne'.

We hope that Brady has a fulfilling experience during his journey and we look forward to September when he re-joins all of us here in Oregon. Carrie, we pray for God to carry you through the next six months quickly. We love you both.