Final Farewells

We've been spending a lot of time with our friends -- saying final good byes. Last week we had dinner at our friend Mianna's house. Thursday night we had a going away with our Bible Study. On Friday we had dinner at Claire's house.

We will see all of our American friends at the airport when we leave. It's a Lajes tradition to "see people off" and so the military airport is always packed with good-byers. They call it "Lajes Goodness." 

But we still had a lot of good byes to say -- to the island and to our Portuguese friends that we needed to do on our own.

So today we decided to go on a little tour of our very favorite Portuguese people and places. 

First (and hardest) stop: Hita's house. I honestly can't even write much about this right now. It's too fresh. Leaving Hatice in Turkey was hard because little Abigail was a baby who thought of her as a Grama. Leaving Hita was hard because little Hannah is a baby who thinks of her as a Grama. When Hannah sees Hita, she kicks her legs and goes to her without hesitation. 

I cried hard leaving this lady. Leaving my American friends is hard, but I know I will most likely see them again. But I just don't know if I'll see Hita again. 

Hita (holding Hannah) having an argument with her mom about which child is in the photo on the wall.

This cracked me up. Hita's Mom kept saying that it was Hita, and Hita was insistent that it was another one of her brothers or sisters. 

The argument goes on.  Hita's mom had six children -- two sets of twins, a son, and another baby who died very young.

Hannah and her Portuguese Grama.

Love this lady so much!

Next up, we stopped at Carlos and Julie's house to say good bye. Julie is Hita's cousin and they are a great family. Carlos does our yard and Julie has babysat and just helped us with translation issues as she speaks fantastic English! Whenever Hita and I reach a language impass, she always says, "You wait. I call Julie!" Then she calls Julie on the phone and Julie translates.

After that, we drove to our beloved Porto Martins. We parked our van and went for a walk on the "Island of Sodor" -- a favorite section of rocks right by our house. Dad and Mom took these photos for us.

After our time on the rocks, we decided to walk back to our house in Porto Martins to say good bye. Here we are heading down the street:

The walk

Abigail stopping to feed her current addiction: flower picking.

Almost home

We made a stop at Al & Fernanda's house across the street to say good bye. She took us on a tour inside their beautiful home and told us how nice it was to see kids playing outside -- it reminded her of her own children. 

Taking a final look at his garden.

Garden beauty

After that we took a walk from our house to Buzius -- where we wanted to have our last lunch. Our friends Tania and Luis met us outside Buzius for some quick hugs.

Walking on the wall outside Buzius

Playing by the water

Hannah with our two favorite Terceira Island waitresses. This is Marta. (Katya was off for the day.)

One last plate of Spaghetti!

One of our favorite spots.

Eating Spaghetti. We absolutely LOVED Buzius. Not only could we walk to it, but Hannah got held while we were eating a lot of the time which let us eat in peace! :)

After that, it was time for a stop at the Red Cafe for ice cream!

Saying good bye to a few of our Red Cafe regulars. One of them told JB, "See, this is why I don't make friends with Americans. They always leave."

Ice cream time

Yum!

Last stop was Josh & Rebekah's house. This house is incredibly special to us as it was occupied by the Seeliger family and then the Storey family. A great place for us to play for two straight years!

Our pirate ship -- relocated to the Storey treehouse. 

Chatting with Josh.

What an amazingly fantastic day. I will truly never forget these last moments in our life on this island.