"Goodbye MOPS"

Today the kids (and I, but we'll get to that later...) had to say goodbye to something very special that we have been a part of for four years.  MOPS.  That first year, Joel grew inside my belly while I was encouraged and Faith and I made wonderful friends.  The next three years, it was an even larger part of our family life as I joined the leadership team and took part in caring for moms in our community.  The part that made it so easy was the wonderful care the kids always received in 'moppets'.  So I snuck back today and got some pictures of the kids and those important people in their lives.  

Miss Darla has loved Joel for the last two years... what a blessing to have a teacher invested for so long in his life.  She is a mom of two spunky boys, so it is fun to have someone who really knows boys to spend time with Joel.

Miss Eve has also been wonderful in loving Joel this year.  It is a blessing to never have a hard time dropping the kids off in their classes.  And I believe so much of that has to do with the wonderful women running these classrooms.

Joel and his best buddy, Kaeden. (aka. Spiderman!)  These guys will miss each other a lot in a few months, but in twenty years, they'll probably be traveling the globe together!  (Kaeden was born in Malaysia and will go back in a few years.)

Miss Beth and Miss Jen were Faith's wonderful teachers.  She spent quite a long time making them both thank-you cards, which shows how much she loved the class and loved them.

Faith and some friends from this year.  It has been really neat to watch this crop of four-year-olds turn into Kindergarten-ready five year olds.  Seriously.  This was the girls table and behind them is the boys table!  That starts already?!

As we left the church today, I had the kids say "goodbye MOPS".  It's tough to watch them start to go through these goodbyes, and to leave the familiar here that they have known their whole lives, and we know the next few months will be not at all easy, but we do look forward to some hellos and new friends after we close this chapter of our lives.