The Last Sunday in Jamaica....

Sunday, June 24 was very very difficult. The dreaded day had arrived. When we first opened our eyes that morning it was a feeling of, "Do we have to do this?"

Jamaica had gotten into our hearts and we knew we had to let go, and it was proving to be very heart-wrenching. Seeing Renee go through this phase was tearing our guts out as well as our own personal feelings. We had tried to keep our emotions at bay for a couple of months but Sunday, June 24 everything broke loose.

First it was the goodbyes at the church. They honored the graduates so that was really special for Renee, they prayed over our family, they loved and loved.

We picked up a pizza to have at the house since our driver was to arrive at 3 in the afternoon. Little did we realize we would have a busy house once again! One of Renee's closest girl friends and her mom came by, some people from church came by. I was busy tending to the last minute things in the house, Den had to return the van to First Assembly that we had borrowed since the selling of the car we used took place on Friday. Ryan was running with Dad, Renee was entertaining guests, Mom was going crazy tending to last minute giveaways and such! It was a crazy and wonderful day.

Then the inevitable had to happen. Rowan, one of our students, came in with the bus to take us to Montego Bay. That dreaded moment had arrived. Tears galore as we pulled out of the driveway, tears galore the farther we went from Mandeville, tears galore....little did we realize there were still more in there to come out.

A few months back, Den in his fatherly wisdom, knew that this was not going to be an easy move for Renee, booked a resort for us to debrief before hitting the ground running in the states. We were there from Sunday evening till Wednesday morning. Although at the beginning of our stay we didn't know if Renee was going to be able to enjoy it, ultimately it was the best thing we could have ever done.

It was a good thing we had Ryan with us. He was able to distract her broken heart and try to make lemonade out of lemons. To say this was easy would be a lie! But I am so glad we were able to make Renee smile while being at the beach rather than in a makeshift place here in the States. God is so good!