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Paradise Cake from King's Hawaiian Bakery - my favorite! |
Since we tend to move pretty frequently, the people who have known us for a long time tend to do rather well with us popping in and out. I'm huge on communication and keeping everyone informed and together, even before there were blogs and Facebook and Twitter (and email!), which helps everyone to stay up to date even if we're on different continents. For our newer friends, however, this move came as quite a shock. After all, we'd lived in the same city (though not the same house) for the past 6 years. If we didn't talk about it, you never would have known that we'd moved eleven times in the ten previous years. And it's not like we were actively searching for opportunities overseas. This chance came at a time when there was precious little else on the horizon. So we took it.
Cupcakes with the flag of Macau made by our old neighbors from two moves ago |
During the almost three months Michael was in Macau without us, my job was to get rid of most of our belongings and put the rest in storage. This was a tiring job that brought a lot of physical and mental anguish. All I can say is that I'm glad it's over. Michael came home for 10 days to help me get the Los Angeles house in order to hand back over to the owners and for a little goodbye celebration that two dear friends decided to put together on our behalf.
Originally I implored them to just hold a little gathering in a local restaurant, thinking we'd get maybe 20 or so people. But they insisted on a larger venue, a local park. And I'm glad they did because we had nearly 100 people drop by to say hello and goodbye over the course of four hours. We took a group pic about halfway through the party, which meant we missed about 30 others who dropped by later.
It is overwhelming to see so many faces of loved ones there to see us off, and from all different areas of our lives. It felt a bit like a wedding reception... I only had maybe 5 minutes with each guest! But it was still fun, and all the kids who came had a great time playing together while the adults chatted and caught up. I didn't cry, not even once. I think I was simply too tired and numb from the previous month's work preparing for the move without my husband. I'm sure I'll sit down and have a good cry before you know it.
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Michael's parents and sister Holly with our family |
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That's me, with my little brother that we very rarely get to see |
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My Mom's side of the family |
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My Dad's side of the family, taken after my parents left and my brother arrived |
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Sleepy brothers, spending their last night in America sharing a queen sized bed with a stack of plush toys and each other. Doesn't look too comfy to me! |
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