Lizzy’s Farewell

It’s no secret we love our Lizzy. She’s knows all our inside jokes, where to put the dishes away, how to coax us out of bad moods and she’s content to do anything or nothing. Perhaps the biggest compliment came from Hans, just weeks into his mission, when he wrote to Xander saying, “You should call Lizzy just to talk. I wish I’d done that more when I could.”

Lizzy’s one of the easiest people in the world to chat with; she always listens, never judges and offers just the right amounts of sympathy and advice. LDS missionaries are allowed only two phone calls a year– Christmas and Mother’s Day. So we’re all going to miss those conversations.

The night before Lizzy spoke in church, her family hosted a farewell party on the beach– bubbles and footballs and Frisbee, hot dogs, s’mores, roasted corn, watermelon, hours of conversation and sparklers after the sun dipped into the ocean.

Well, you can see it all here:

Lizzy’s Farewell from Michelle Lehnardt on Vimeo.

 

The next day Lizzy spoke beautifully in church and we settled in for a few days of just savoring her company: making pie, taking long walks, days at the beach, card games and board games and just talking, talking, talking. Each of us took turns crying and then reminded each other to enjoy our time together. At times, Lizzy just lay her head in her mom’s lap and cried.

I took one last photo of the stair step kids– by the time Lizzy comes home in 18 months we’re sure John will be taller than Zoey (and maybe Lizzy too).

Oh they’re going to miss her! And we all will. But we know she’s doing God’s work in Cochabamba. We’ll write and we’ll pray for her.

And we’ll wish we’d called her on the phone more,

when we could,

just to talk,

just because we could.