The blessed day has arrived....

So......the day has finally come and gone. We dropped our dear sweet Smashley off at the airport to depart to the Argentina MTC to begin this new 18-month spiritual adventure of her lifetime!! What a cherished event.

Ash told me days prior to her departure that I couldn't come to the airport if I was going to cry! "Ummm...excuse me...... but I'm the mama so I'm gonna cry," I informed her. She gave me permission to cry all the way home from the airport. She told me that if I cried, she would cry. I said, "That's okay." She explained to me that she had the greatest feeling about everything right at that moment and she didn't want it to change for anything. She didn't want to shed a tear. I told her I would try my hardest.

We arrived at the airport and when we checked her bags in, the airline attendant told us her bag was 4 pounds over weight. Funny since we weighed her bag at home and it was 5 pounds under. Anywho, that meant she would have to pay an extra $60.00. Steve asked the attendant if she could make an exception for a missionary. "Sorry, no way! It's for liability reasons," she said. We laughed trying to rationalize how if we paid extra money that that would somehow eliminate any liability, right? haha! It didn't matter anyway because she could actually check on two bags to South America for no extra cost. So we reshuffled the contents of that bag to her carry-on bag and checked them both on. Hopefully no luggage got lost because her extra set of clothes were in that carry-on bag. She had intended to keep it with her just in case of lost luggage.

We walked slowly to the security point, taking some pics along the way. Emotions ran high, but I managed to keep the tears back as I watched Ash hug her little sistas for the last time in 18 months. As I got my turn to embrace my little girl, the tears welled up and we both cried for a few brief moments. They were tears of joy though.

Although I'm going to miss that girl, I am so proud of her for making such a huge sacrifice in her life for a greater cause...the people of Uruguay. We managed to hold strong as we watched our little girl walk through security and out of sight. Now she is in the Lord's hands!

Can't wait for her first email..............