Family

Part of me doesn't want to write these blogs about the last days of my Spanish life. Because writing makes things real. Just like sometimes people don't want to talk about things...because somehow we think that if we don't acknowledge something, if we don't have that difficult conversation about it or if we don't write it down, then maybe it never really happened. But avoidance is not the way I want to experience leaving Spain or the way I want to live my life. So here it is. :)

All of my American girlfriends and I got together in Spain a couple of weeks before I left to go to the US. There are six of us in the group (left-right): Ashley, me, Alicia, Katelyn, Amanda, and Joanna.





We have all been living in the Huelva province for the past nine months, and I am so thankful for each one of them. These women have become family to me.

We enjoyed tasty fajitas and delicious Spanish white wine and lots of reminiscing about our favorite moments of Spain. Most awkward moments, most frustrating moments, most exciting moments -- they were all relived. Amanda having her foot broken, me with the dreaded taxi strike at Christmas, all of us traveling to Lagos together...it was really fun to talk about the past nine months with people who have been there through every step of the way. :) And Joanna so thoughtfully and sweetly created a slide show of our time in Spain -- she literally took pictures from all of our facebook photo albums and formed a huge slide show beginning in September and going all the way up until now. It was incredibly thoughtful and touching, and needless to say we were all teary-eyed by the end of it. :)

I love these women so much, and I am so thankful that they have become a part of my life. I think back to this time last year, or even, before this time. I think back to March of 2009, and how unhappy I was with my life. Everything I had planned and figured out for my life was not happening. Graduate programs were rejecting me, my long-term dating relationship had ended...I had no idea what to do. And to think now of how much my life has changed, and for the better, is incredible. And if those difficult and challenging things had not happened, if God had not taken away some of the good things in my life, I never would have been blessed with something better. And I am just so incredibly thankful for these past nine months and the family I have been able to share them with. :) I am going to miss these women an unreal amount, but I'm learning that it is better to meet new people and be away from them for some period of time then to never have met them at all. As painful as it can be, that is what growth and change and real life is all about. And as they say, "You never really leave a place or person you love, part of them you take with you, leaving a part of yourself behind.” And I am certain that I will carry these ladies, my family, in my heart forever.



With immense gratitude,
Brittany