Saying Goodbye-A Rollercoaster of Emotions

Dibora praying a goodbye blessing for her friends.

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining. The kids were smiling. Dibora was happy to see her friends one last time. We went to the House of Hope after our Embassy appointment to give Dibora’s friends their gifts. They lit up with excitement and showered us with hugs and kisses as they opened their bags full of beanie babies, bubbles, jump ropes, happy meal toys, etc . We were so glad to encourage Dibora’s gift of giving. She is so extremely generous. Last trip she gave away pretty much everything we gave her. She also asked us to bring presents for her friends and a dress for one of her nannies. After the gift giving, we went into the director’s office and she called some of the kids inside to pray. Dibora’s friend prayed for her that she wouldn’t forget God and that she would be well taken care of. Dibora also prayed for her friends that their families would come for them soon. More showers of hugs and kisses covered us as we got in the van to leave.

The rest of the day Dibora was not feeling well and was a little sad, but it wasn’t until the next morning that she really showed any real signs of grief. We showed her a video of our first trip of her dancing with Averi and Eli. What we didn’t think about was that the video was showing some of her friends in the background and the places where she grew to love and feel at home. She began crying so we went upstairs to lay down. Dibora crawled up into my lap and cried and cried. I told her I love her when she is happy and sad. Yesterday (a few days later) I told her I even love her when she is mad. She was playing “silent treatment” and hiding her head under the blankets. She wouldn’t eat breakfast and slept in my lap at the table for about an hour. She didn’t want to interact with us until a little while later when Larry asked her if she wanted to go to the store for some ice cream. Although none of the stores had any ice cream, she spotted a donut and said, “my breakfast!” After that she was happy the rest of the day. We played soccer, had a few water gun fights, spoke whale back and forth (after watching finding nemo), and laughed and laughed. Happy….then sad…then happy…then mad…quiet…then laughing hysterically. This is the roller coaster of emotions we are riding. There is nothing quite like it. I would wait in line for this ride again and again. So worth the wait!