the emotions of fall

I think about my children every day.

No, forget that.

Every hour.  My beautiful African babies that I was so blessed to spend 16 months with on the road.  I miss them terribly, and I have an extremely hard time accepting that it has been nine months since I have seen them.  Time flies by in ways I'm just not willing to accept.  Soon it will be one year since tour.  How does that even happen?

December 6, 2010 we North American Aunties and Uncle stood in the DC airport waving at the top of the escalator as our children disappeared out of sight, and we stood there. Helpless. Tears flowing, hearts full from our time together but completely empty as our precious babies were now on their way back to Africa.  It was cold outside - freezing actually. I remember walking around downtown DC in my ginormous Kermit the Frog coat, enjoying every last moment I had with the Aunties before we too parted ways.

December 6 was easily the single hardest day I've experienced.... maybe ever.

But the days leading up to it, the months, they were beautiful.  Wonderful.

Fall, 2010. It was the best.



We had finally hit a true groove in our tour.  Our relationships with the children and with each other had progressed from the initial 'get to know' you to friendship and finally... family.  Truth.

In September we enjoyed the true beauty of Alaska.  Glaciers, mountains, dolphins, whales, moose, eagles, bears, salmon, the works.  We spent endless hours on multiple ferries, going from stop to stop along the Alaskan islands.  Lovely.  Those were some of my best places on all of tour.  Adult and child both standing in awe of incredible mountains of ice and agreeing that yes, it does look like whipping cream.

October: the insane trek from Ketchikan, Alaska, to New York City that we made in approximately two weeks. Ha, who does that? Why, we, Choir 35 do that.  And for as crazy as it was, it was wonderful, and the stops along the way were fantastic as we were blessed with incredible churches and hosties.  Maybe because they were towards the end, maybe because they really were fantastic - but I remember those stops on that journey the most.  I even had one host family in Wisconsin that had carved a dead tree in their front yard into a giraffe.  And it was beautiful.  And they were awesome.

Coming to Canandaigua.  The brisk Fall air welcoming me home with my children and fellow chaps in a wonderful opportunity to share the past year of my life with my home.  Ahhh... lovely.

November, the return of our OPUS shows and more crazy insane bus rides.  In November alone we were in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee, and back to North Carolina for Thanksgiving.  But the busyness of the schedule and the love for OPUS that I think we all shared made for one of the best months yet - closing for us what was a fantastic season.

Fall.

And so now, on this crisp, breezy day, memories of last Fall come rushing back to me and my heart... it hurts.  I miss my children.  I miss the Aunties and Uncles.  I miss those days we spent at Mirembe House playing games and watching movies and baking and reading books and taking walks.  I can't believe that so much time has passed.  I am thankful for the time we had, and all those little things I forgot about that I'm now reminded of as the seasons change.

It's a new year, a new day.

And I will always miss ACC35.