Saying Goodbye to Boise

Saying goodbye is always the hardest part, and this time was no exception. When you leave somewhere you love filled with people you love, the only thing that makes it better is really knowing you should go. We felt very led to move to Guatemala and that’s the only way we were able to make it through all our goodbyes.

We didn’t take pictures of everyone, but these pictures represent all those that we love and left. There were tears and laughter through it all.

These people are genuine salt of the earth people. Our hearts have so much love for them after all they did for us. They took our family into their home (all 6 of us) when we were homeless for a couple weeks and did all they could to make us feel comfortable. They loved us like we were their own. We are forever grateful for these dear friends and will always cherish the memories we made with them while we were there. We left better people after staying with them. They definitely left an imprint in our hearts.

Daniel lives next door to our friends we stayed with, and as we were getting ready to leave for good, his awesome mom came and got Brynn and baked delicious chocolate cookies with her for our trip, which was a complete life saver! Brynn needed a buddy to distract her. We all agreed they were the best chocolate chip cookies we’ve ever had!! My mouth waters just thinking about them! Then, Daniel gave Brynn this adorable elephant backpack because he knew it was her favorite animal. That was special in and of itself, but when I heard the backstory from his mom, it meant that much more! We think about Daniel and his huge heart often when Brynn uses her cute elephant backpack.

These are our neighbors that became family! Their hearts are huge and they open the door to their hearts and homes to anyone!! We learned so much about love from them, and are so grateful for all the help and support they gave us in our move and throughout all the years we lived by them.

This wonderful couple put on an amazing Goodbye Open House for us. At first we were hesitant because we aren’t big fans of being the center of attention, but they knew better, and knew us well enough to just tell us they were doing it, and we are so grateful they did. It gave us the opportunity to say goodbye to our dear friends and relieved the pressure of “is this the last time I’m going to see you” feeling you so often have. We love you Bennions! Thank you!

Saying goodbye to our stuff was beautiful and we don’t miss it a bit….

…but saying goodbye to our home was a lot harder, especially for the kids. There were a lot of great memories made there. On the last day, as we were rushing around like mad people trying to get everything cleaned and out, my kids kept saying bye to things that meant the most to them. That definitely pricked my mama heart.

We sold our home with all of the furniture included and so there were plenty of sentimental goodbyes. We held it together until the final goodbye and then there were tears shed.