Saying Goodbye. This week I said goodbye to 11 wonderful people. Throughout our year together, living abroad in a strange new environment, we depended on each other for support, sarcasm, and sanity. No matter where you are in the world, there's nothing like a group of crazy Americans when they get together. The love and friendship I witnessed throughout this group was beautiful to see. These 11 people have so many gifts to give to the world, each with their own unique personality and God given talents to inspire the world around them. It was a pleasure to witness relationships form and bond throughout the year, and though because of the way of our happenings throughout the year, I didn't get to spend as much time with each of them as much as I would have liked, but I feel privileged to have gotten to know each and every one of them as much as I did and bear witness to the fruit they are bearing in the lives around them.

Goodbyes are never easy though it seems like I've had my fair share of them over the past several years. Things change, people go their own ways, life moves forward sometimes slowly and sometimes in the blink of an eye. This year has been a mix of those moments and I think the rest of my volunteer friends both TfG and YAGM would agree that sometimes we wish more of those slower moments were spent together.

As I approach the end of my year, still two months away but none the less, it is a bitter sweet time to be thinking about next steps. Some volunteers in other countries have already said goodbye to their placements and perhaps one or two have even flown home already. It just doesn't seem real that this is the time we are in already. I don't want to go too in depth with goodbyes now because I still have time left at my placement and here in the UK, but I pause because this week was the first of many goodbyes I will encounter in the next 63 days.....yes I just counted that out and holy wow that's a bit hard to swallow that 63 is all the time I have left of my time here.

All I can say is its been a roller coaster of a year. Not necessarily in events that happened but more so the learning experiences and emotions I went through this year. It will definitely be interesting to try and condense this whole year into some form that I can share with all of you. I hope that you have been enjoying my blogs. I apologize for the increased gaps between them but instead of trying to post frequently about day to day things I thought it would be more valuable to write specifically about significant thoughts and feelings I was having at particular points in my year. I felt my blog would more real that way.

 I've never been the greatest at sharing things with other people so I take this blog as a step in the right direction of communicating more with people about anything really that takes place in my life. I thank you all so so very much for reading and keeping up with me through this blog this year. It has been a real testament to me on just how many people support and love me and how wonderful you all truly are as people to take time out of your lives to read a long blog post to see how I am doing. If your anything like me you tend to take one look at long paragraphs and run the other direction lol. So thank you all for your unimaginably important roll in supporting me this year.

My many blessings towards you all. I hope your summer has kicked off well and the heat isn't weighing you down too much. It is supposed to get in the 80's next week here in the UK. So I do get some of the summer heat after all. Good practice for coming home lol. God bless all of you :).