Good bye

This morning at 4am, my friend Erin and her husband Craig and two amazing kiddos headed out of Greeneville. I am sure I've talked about the Dunhams many times on the Blog. Craig and John were at the same class at Fort Lauderdale Christian School for most of their lives. Craig and I weren't big fans of each other at all. His mother was my 2nd grade teacher. John was in Craig's wedding, and then, life took us all over the world. 

I didn't know Erin at all, but in 2015, when we lived in Spring Hill, Craig was deployed with the Air Force, and she came to visit us in Spring Hill, TN. The first time I have record of a visit with her on this Blog was in 2016. 

Erin and I are very different people. She's organized, efficient, and Type A. I'm ... well, none of those things. But somehow, we fell in love with each other and have become fast friends. 

A few years ago, they came and lived on the farm for about 7 months while Craig was deployed again, and then this past year, they spent nearly all of it in Greeneville while planning their new life in Malaysia.

We took this picture on our last day of co-op together. I brought our favorite drinks (I'm working on not drinking much Mountain Dew) and Erin's coffee. 

I've had to say a lot of good byes in my life, but since I moved to the farm ten years ago, I have been a bit protected from those challenges. This week, it came up again. It is what life is, isn't it? We love. And we lose. Not that I'm losing Erin, but it is very sad to not have her with us in Greeneville anymore. 

We are planning a (tentative) trip to Malaysia to visit them. We have never been East of Turkey so this would be a big deal for us. We will see if we can do that. We are looking at December/January of 2026-2027.  

Last night, we drove over to have an impromptu dinner with them and say our final good byes. Most of my kids were at Youth Group, but Zach and Hannah and Zoey were there and got to spend some time together. Here are a few more snaps of the evening: