It's been a bittersweet week around here (at least for me!). We've spent almost every day seeing friends, trying to do the stuff that's been such a normal part of our lives for the last year and a half. We've lived in Northwest Arkansas for almost five years, and it's a very warm community - easy to fit in, find your place, and enjoy life.
But it wasn't really until we started homeschooling in the Fall of '09 that we started to find people who shared our values and had similar philosophies about family, marriage, and raising kids. I'm amazed at how quickly we developed bonds with these other families that I'm sure will last for many years to come.
The number one question we got after deciding to homeschool was "but when will they see other kids?" I'm happy to see Rich has developed deeper and richer relationships with other kids in the last year than he did in three years of public school. He's learned to chose friends according to character and mutual interest, rather than by proximity (a lesson Brennan, Christie, and I are learning as well).
In all, we agree it's been the best years of our lives so far. I hope the future brings even better ones, but part of us will always long for these peaceful times of school at the library (and the milkshakes that followed), playing at Chik-Fil-A on cold and rainy days with friends, Treehouse, Imagination Village, park days in Rogers and Bella Vista...the list goes on and on. We'll be back as soon as we can, though we know things will be different, including us. But change is good, and we've changed for the better for having known such wonderful people and experienced true, healthy community, maybe for the first time.
So this is not farewell, only "see ya later." And we will.
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