Last year at this time, we were busy! Not that we aren't always busy, but we were busier!
It is a lot of work to get a missionary ready to leave home for 2 years.
Getting everything he will need into 2 suitcases and a carry on was a bit crazy!
Braden left October 24, 2013.
He was supposed to leave on October 22nd.
There was a mission president's conference that his president had to attend so they pushed back his date. So, I am counting down to October 22nd. That to me was his official leave date!
One year later and these pictures still make me cry.
Ever since I found out I was having a boy when I was pregnant with Braden, I had been preparing for this day. But, I don't think anything actually prepares you for a day like this.
Taking Braden to the airport and watching him walk through security all alone was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life. I think that day my heart broke and part of it went with him. I never knew how something so right could hurt so much.
Braden went to the Santiago Chile MTC. Until recently most missionaries have gone to the Provo Utah Missionary Training Center. We now have so many missionaries, that there are MTC's all over the world. Putting my boy on an airplane WITHOUT the cell phone and instant communication was ridiculously hard. No longer could I text him, call him or see him. Other than following his plane on the internet, I had no idea if he made it there or whether or not he made his connecting flights or anything. I didn't even know if he would eventually meet up with other missionaries(which I believe he did in Atlanta). I didn't even hear from him until the next day when he did finally arrive in Santiago.
People have asked me how we could let him do such a thing.
I can't imagine NOT doing such a thing.
As hard as this has been, I wouldn't want him to be anywhere else in this world!
Serving a mission, to me, is one of the most important things my boys could do, and my girls, for that matter, if they should choose to do so.
I have already seen such growth in him. Spiritually, mentally and if I am being honest, even physically! (He has put on a few pounds).
And I know he will continue to grow.
He left a boy and will return a man.
We love our weekly emails, and we so look forward to Mother's Day and Christmas, as we can Skype with him. That is our only communication. And after having lived in a world of cell phones and instant communication, that may be the hardest part.
BUT, ONE YEAR DOWN and ONE YEAR to go.
(and in the mean time, I will be getting another missionary ready to go!)
