Here we go again.

I've got a sad girlie on my hands, again.
The move is hitting home and I predict a difficult three weeks ahead of us.

She was wiping away tears on the walk from the bus to the school this morning, and again I'm at a loss as to how to make it better.

I've tried the reasonable responses to her questions--

"Why does Daddy have to have a job that moves so much?"
"Can't he just get a regular job? He could be a postman or a taxi driver."
"Why did we even bother making friends here anyway if we just have to say goodbye?"

I answered her questions, but she didn't really want to hear it.
Her sad heart was not interested in hearing about military regulations, visas and citizenship, or how our world gets bigger when we let other people into it.

Even as we walked past a man sleeping on the street, her brain could recognize that we should count our blessings, but her heart didn't want to hear about it. Not just then.

So I just said, "I know. It's really hard."

Their little Spanish school friends are not used to forever goodbyes, so it's been more of a topic of conversation at school. Alex is making rainbow loom goodbye gifts for her amigos.

Derek is also expressing how he wants to stay here, and will miss his friends. This is new territory for him, as he's been too young in the past to really have those feelings.

Derek's English teacher left to go on maternity leave, and so he's had a new teacher who happens to be an American. She asked him where he was from in American and he didn't know how to answer her. After school he asked me where he was from. Definitely a military kid! Even funnier is that I wasn't sure how to answer him! Idaho, N. Carolina, California...

I knew that moving would get harder on the kids as they got older, but I was really thinking more of the high school years-- not elementary school! Hopefully one day we can all look back on these experiences together and realize what a opportunity we've had to live life in so many places.

I'm guessing that wont be happening during the next three weeks. So I'll be doing lots of snuggling and sympathizing...or maybe looking into getting Josh a taxi license.

;)

Here are a few more pictures, and I have no idea why they show up small, but I think if you click on them they will get bigger.
Or maybe they will disappear.
I wouldn't know.