The seven days leading up to our departure on December 31^st, 2011 was an absolute grab-bag of emotions.  Christmas was wonderful.  It was just the five of us and the house was still fully intact, complete with all the usual and beautiful Christmas décor.  That evening we were joined by Grandma and Grandpa Holm, Michelle, Hanna, Tommy and Jordan.

The next morning, however, packing began in earnest.  By noon Christmas had been packed away, walls were made bare, and shelves emptied.   By bedtime the house was hardly recognizable.  Walking around and looking at the empty walls and gutted bedrooms was hard, and more than once I fought back tears.

Our Farewell Open House

On the evening of Tuesday the 26^th, several of our good friends in St. Cloud hosted a going-away open house in our honor.  It was a fantastic last chance to bid farewell to so many of our longtime friends, and the best good-buy gift for which we could have asked.  To Tom and Christy Walsh, Adam and Jennifer Hornung, and Chad and Suzie Allen, thank you for planning this heartwarming event.  And to everyone else who came to say good bye, you will be missed.

Nothing wrapped in a box could have compared to this.

Kids, Sleepovers, and Tearful Goodbyes

We didn’t see much of our two oldest, Andi and Tanner, during this last week.  Neither Cari nor I had the heart to tell them they had to stay home and help pack, so they spent almost the entire week playing and sleeping over at friends.  And that makes me happy.  They lived their entire lives in St. Cloud and their friends were like family… loved and cherished.  Let them spend as much time with them as possible.

Saying goodbye is never easy.  Or fun.  When the time came to see each friend for the last time, it became increasingly harder to choke back tears, and eventually we just let them flow.  Such good people.  Such great friends.

Packing, packing, and still more packing…

The process of boxing everything up that began Monday morning was still in full swing by Wednesday, and the amount we still had left was starting to feel overwhelming and discouraging.  Buy now we were sleep deprived and cranky, and there was still no end in sight.  That evening about fifteen guys showed up to help carry out the heavy and bulky furniture, which helped.  But by bed time we knew there was still a long ways to go.

All day Thursday we plugged away, and that night the house was to the point where it wasn’t livable, so we crashed at Cory and Christalee Beard’s house for the night. But we weren’t done yet.  Early Friday  morning Cari and I were back and hauling last loads to the storage unit and sorting through the final piles of odds and ends.  By noon that day, packing was… finally… done.

A Huge Thank You!

So many people helped us during packing week I hate to start naming names or I’ll forget someone.  The outpouring of support and help was humbling and fantastic.  Yet there is one person it would be positively criminal not to publicly thank.  Christalee Beard, I’m absolutely certain, spent well over forty hours at our house packing and cleaning and keeping Cari company during the never-ending packing week.  She was tireless and cheerful, and her help and her company were invaluable.  Without her I seriously don’t think we would have made our Saturday morning flight.

To Christalee, her husband Cory who was most likely the second biggest helper, and to everyone else who came and lent a hand, please accept a gigantic “Thank You!” from the Crookstons.

Last 24 Hours

We pulled away from the house just after noon on Friday and headed down to Grandma and Grandpa Holm’s house in the Twin Cities, last stop before the airport the next morning.  In our driveway we left behind Shad Swenson’s trailer, complete with a huge pile of Goodwill donations and garbage that we just simply didn’t have time to deal with.  Thank you to Shad and Cory for dealing with our leftover junk.

After an intense week of non-stop packing for over 12 hours every day, we desperately wanted to sit, do nothing, and decompress.  Not so.  Everything we wanted to bring with to the island we had basically thrown into the car, and now it needed to be sorted, put into suitcases, and weighed to make sure no case was over 50 pounds.  Add in some last minute trips to the store and the pharmacy, plus a car that still needed to be sold and school paperwork to fill out, and bedtime ended up being around 2:00 am.

Valuable time with Marcus and Loren

Cari’s brother Marcus, his wife Lauren and their two adorable twin boys will be moving to Singapore in mid-January of 2012 (two weeks after we left for St. Martin), and chances were high we wouldn’t see them again for two years.  While taking care of all the last minute odds-n-ends, we also squished in some much desired visiting time with them.  With both of us on the fringes of such a grand adventure we were all nervous, a little scared, lot excited, and it felt good to compare notes and chat.

Last Home Evening in Minnesota

Around midnight on Friday evening, we gathered the kids into the Holm’s living room and accompanied by Ron and Joann (Cari’s parents), Hannah (Cari’s sister who’s a freshman at BYU), and Michelle (who is here on the island with us), we had a last and short home evening.  In it, I expressed to my kids my assurance that Heavenly Father is watching over us as we depart, and that He intends to make our time on the island beautiful, special, and memorable. I told them I believed that over the next 20 months we would create memories that we will treasure, cherish and hold close to our hearts for the rest of our lives.