I have to admit that when I learned from her that he was being transferred, I had a few tears. When I closed the last suitcases of supplies that were being sent to the Ghana MTC, I had a few tears then, too. It took me a while to realize the reason for those emotions. Each experience creates a little more separation, a little more cutting of the apron strings. Whatever connection there had been, whatever familiarity had been created, was being shut down.
He doesn't experience this exactly the way I do. He is in Ghana and is focused on serving his mission and the people there. I'm here where things are basically the same, except that he is absent.
I have decided that, likely, I will feel this with every transfer and every change. Whatever has become familiar will change to something unfamiliar and I will travel that little rollercoaster with him.
However, this transfer is a little different. For these first months, I have had a substitute mom watching over Chris. Sister Brink has been so wonderful to not only keep me posted (not too often, but enough to send reassurances and ALWAYS on the days I have needed that uplift the most), but also to watch out for the missionaries there. She has fed them, visited them, brought them supplies...been a mom. And I'm sure Elder Brink has been a substitute dad, too.
That time in Tamale came to an end much sooner than we expected. The reason is because so many missionaries left the Kumasi Mission to go home (honorably, I might add) and only a few sisters came from the MTC with the last group. So, it became necessary to close some areas of Tamale and send Chris and other missionaries to take over in other areas of the mission that needed the elders more.
So, off to Suame (don't ask me how to pronounce that...I don't know yet!) Elder Morford goes.
Thank you, Sister Brink, for being my sister and my friend...and standing in my place for a few months. You have a mother heart and have been a blessing to me.
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