The goodbye parties are starting...

I have mentioned on the blog that we have a lot of friends who are moving between now and the next four months or so. This comes with the territory of being in such a transient city. People come and people go. Not many people settle for years and years. I have a tendency to be a debbie downer so right now I am wallowing in my pity of people leaving. If I am honest, I will tell you, it is hard. You feel like you are a bit left behind when you stay. :) But I am trying to focus on the positive - to see how rich my life is by having met these fabulous people. My world is so much bigger now after having lived here for 3.5 years now and being exposed to so many interesting people that God has brought into my life. I am so grateful. So blessed. But I will not lie, the goodbyes are hard. In the US, if someone moved, you knew you would see them again when everyone came home for holidays or summer breaks. Or, I could just fly to Arizona and visit my friend out there. This is different - we have friends moving to Hong Kong, Melbourne, Geneva, Amsterdam, and Sapporo. Maybe we will see our friends in Sapporo for a ski vacation in the winter, but everyone else - well, I am not sure the next time I will be in Amsterdam. So it is hard. But we sure our having some fun parties in the midst of it all. Check out the party pics...more will come after this weekend.