a sad post with a happy ending

I love everything about this picture. I love the lake and the mountains and the clouds. I love that it was taken on a Sunday. I love that our arms are crossed over each other, linking us together. I love that I can tell that Em is laughing. I love the yellow flowers peeping in between Em and Hailey. I love that I know the probability of Hailey making a silly face is about 98% and that her facial expression is most likely why Em is laughing. And most of all, I love that even though you can't see our faces, I can tell that we love each other.

My Hailey left us today. And even though I know I'm going to see her again in September for her farewell, I feel a little empty inside because I know that we will never live together again. I'll never again come home to my favorite candy bar on my bed with a love note from her. We'll never go out late at night to make a Pre-Per-Pur. I'll probably have to start saying grilled cheese again, because other people won't understand when I say that I want me some girrrl cheese. I won't be able to sing "Chicken Fried" or "Keep Me in Mind" without wishing that she were there to sing along. No more late nights talking about nothing and everything at the same time.

I'm sad. Let's just be honest. I'm really, really sad. I don't like change, and I have never lived in apartment 104 without her. But the happy part that I promised is coming.

Hailey is leaving our little apartment in Provo to go serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Chesapeake, Virginia. She is sacrificing everything she knows to go and serve the Lord. Her education is being put on hold for a little while, and she won't see her family or friends for 18 months. I've never served a mission, but I can only imagine that what she is doing is going to be really, really hard and is already really, really scary. And the fact that she is so willing and ready to go do that in spite of all of the challenges she has already faced getting to this point and all the challenges she will face in the coming months makes me happy. I know that she will be so blessed and that she will be a blessing to everybody who knows her. The people she meets on her mission will be blessed. Her family will be blessed. Her companions will be blessed. I will be blessed. Because Hailey is just one of those blessing-in-your-life kind of people.

I'm so happy for you, Sister Watt! You're going to rock the socks off of Virginia.