Hellos and Goodbyes

If you've been following our blog, you'll notice that this post is not an uncommon phenomenon. By this I mean that we've remarked quite a bit about "goodbye" to this person or that family. I suppose that life on the missions field is just a series of one goodbye after another. We say goodbyes to our families and friends back home, then travel halfway around the world and end up making new friends and saying goodbye to them all too frequently, as they leave on furloughs, or to return to normal life in the US.

This month we've had some difficult goodbyes here at Tenwek. Logan, Julie, and Liam Bankshave been with us since January (almost as long as the Faders and McLaughlins have been at Tenwek). Logan has worked with Jason, Eric, and Rachel at the hospital, and Julie and Liam were active participants of our baby playgroup on Mondays. We have all had a wonderful time getting to know them, and benefited from them in many ways: from Anna Fader learning ballet from Julie to Logan taking OB calls for Rachel and then from their family's generosity in leaving us with all their leftover food!! They're returning to Springfield, MO for a 5 year commitment to work in the family practice program. Then we hope to see them again on the missions field one day.

The other difficult goodbye is the Galat family. Dan, Heather, Jeremiah, Emma, Claire, and Levi have been at Tenwek for 18 months as part of the Post Residency Program, like us. They are returning to the US for hopefully only a year, and we really really hope to see them back here more permanently next summer. The whole family has been a blessing to us McCropders, and we will especially miss Jeremiah rapelling off our balcony, Emma scootering by, Claire greeting our kids with an enthusiastic smile and welcome, and Levi, well, Elise will really miss her first boyfriend from Kenya. :)

On the flip side, June is also a month of hellos. Rachel's mom Jean and her aunt Joan are here for the month, and another aunt and uncle arrive soon. Bob Lynn, our missions pastor from Knox, and his wife Ilene arrive in the next few weeks, as does Jess's sister Abby. We look forward to everyone's arrivals and would extend an invitation for all of you to visit, too. Stay tuned for more stories and pictures.