Goodbye
As he pulled out of the church parking lot, Dad said, “We’re going to be leaving soon. We need to begin saying our goodbyes.”
“That’s right,” said Mom. “An important part of leaving our host country is saying goodbye. That makes it easier to begin life in our passport country.”
“We need to say goodbye to our pastor and Sunday school teachers,” said Dan.
“Yes, and goodbye to our teachers at school too,” added Esther.
“What about our aunts and uncles in our agency?” asked Paul.
“And our friends too?” asked Ruth. “Those are going to be the hardest ones for me. What about saying goodbye to the church?”
“Don’t you mean the people in the church?” asked Esther.
“No, I mean the building,” answered Ruth.
“That’s doesn’t make any sense,” said Paul. “You can’t say goodbye to a building. It can’t hear you—and it wouldn’t care anyway.”
“It does make sense,” said Mom. “Buildings can’t hear us, but we need to say goodbye to places as well as to people.”
“You mean like goodbye to our school?” asked Paul.
“And our house, and our room?” asked Dan.
“What about our neighborhood—the store, the restaurant, and places like that?” asked Esther.
“All of those,” said Dad as he pulled up to the gate at their house. “It’s just a part of leaving to say those goodbyes.”
Champ came running up to the gate, barking as he came. “You’ll also want to tell Champ goodbye,” said Mom.
You mean we can’t take Champ with us?” asked Paul. “I thought he was a part of our family and we could take him with us.”
“We do say that Champ is like one of the family, but he’s a guard dog trained to bark and keep people away. He’s too big to take with us on the plane. Even if we did take him, he would not be a good dog for where we’ll be living,” said Dad.
“I love Champ, and I want to take him,” said Ruth. “We can’t leave him behind.”
“People often have to leave pets behind,” said Mom as they walked toward the house. Seeing Dan’s and Esther’s bicycles, she added, “And we’ll have to leave the bikes here too. There just isn’t room to take all our things.”
“I didn’t think we would take those,” said Dan. “But do you mean we’re going to have to leave other things too?”
“Probably so,” said Dad. “We have only so much room on the plane and we can buy many things back home at much less cost than it would be to ship them.”
“Most of the goodbyes are to things that begin with ‘P’,” noted Esther. “People, places, pets, and things.”
“If you call things ‘possessions,’ they all begin with ‘P’,” said Mom. “That is a good way to remember them. People, places, pets, and possessions.”
“Do you mean I might have to leave my doll?” asked Ruth. “I don’t want to leave her. She’s my friend.”
“I’m sure we can take your doll,” said Mom. “But we can’t take everything. We have only so much room. All of us will have to leave some possessions behind, some things we want to take.”
“We have already shipped some trunks,” said Dad. Don’t you remember when we packed those—and put some of your things in?”
“Yes, but I thought we could take everything else when we went,” said Paul.
“We can’t take everything, just like we can’t take people and places,” said Dad. “But we can take things that will remind us of them.”
“Sure,” said Dan. “We can take pictures of everything we want to remember. We can burn thousands of pictures on a CD and take it on the plane with us.”
“That’s right.” said Mom. “And you can take souvenirs too. Remember how people who have visited us bought souvenirs at the market. You don’t need to buy things, just take something special.”
“Do you mean like a piece of chalk from school and a craft from church?” asked Paul.
“Exactly,” said Mom. “Just so you take something small and light. We don’t have a lot of room, and the airlines have weight limits.”
“Saying goodbye makes me sad,” said Ruth. “Remember when Dorothy left Oz in The Wizard of Oz? I feel that way now.”
“She threw her arms around the lion’s neck and kissed him, patting his big head tenderly. Then she kissed the Tin Woodman, who was weeping in a way most dangerous to his joints. But she hugged the soft, stuffed body of the Scarecrow in her arms instead of kissing his painted face and found she was crying herself at this sorrowful parting from her loving comrades.”
Things to do and think about
Esther and Mom noted that it’s good to say goodbye to several things that begin with the letter “P.” Unscramble the words in the sentences below and make your lists.
1. Make a list of eplope ____________ you want to tell goodbye. Here are several suggestions. After you unscramble the following, write specific names.
· nutsa _____________________
· sametalcss _________________
· sendifr ____________________
· reignsobh __________________
· ratspo ____________________
· cheaters ___________________
· celnsu ____________________
2. Make a list of slapec ____________ you want to tell goodbye.
3. Make a list of step _____________ you want to tell goodbye.
4. Make a list of the ssssspoonie ________ _____________that you’ll have to leave behind. Then begin to sort them out. Give some of them to your friends. Donate others to nationals who live in your host country.
5. Make a list of things you’ll be glad to leave behind (like the barking dog next door, the trash burning next door, and so forth).