Until We Meet Again

We knew it would happen before we started this journey. We expected it to happen. And it did. We made friends here! We have been so lucky to meet such wonderful people from all over the world on our great adventure to Poland. The hard part now is that we've become attached. Saying good bye is much harder leaving Poland than when we left Olathe. When we left home we knew that we would be returning to our fair city in nine months; to the people who are important to us, our house, our church, our school, our neighborhood and our life that is so familiar and easy. We will be able to pick up nearly where we left off. As we leave Poland we are faced with the reality that on this side of heaven, we will likely never again see some of these folks who have become so important to us. That makes this good bye much more difficult.

Myles is continuing his affiliation with Politechnika, so there will be future trips to Gdansk from time to time. But people move, situations change, jobs evolve and it's incredibly expensive to travel. As we prepare to leave, other families we know here are also preparing new chapters in their lives. One family is moving to Italy this summer, one to Denmark next year, one to Japan within the next couple of years, one will be considering whether they stay in Gdansk or not within the next year. I have marveled at the timing and how we happened upon this particular group of people. We were only here for less than a year, just passing through really. It was so unlikely for many of us to ever cross paths. We consider it an incredible gift that we did! And since technology has in recent years made it so easy, we can keep our connections through Facebook and email, though it is of course, not the same.

Going home to the life we know is joyful, make no mistake. But as with any crossroad, taking one path means not taking another one. My friend Claudia, refuses to say "good bye."

She insists that we leave it as, "Until we meet again..." I could not agree more. Her family is moving to Rome in July. So now I have a friend in Rome and she has a friend in Kansas City. Who got the better end in that deal? Sorry, Claudia!

Ivija, who I have added to my permanent BFF collection, grew up in Latvia under communism until it fell when she was a teenager. We frequently discover and laugh about little cultural differences. I consider our friendship one of the greatest treasures of this trip. Ivija can see planes as they take off from the Gdansk airport from her house. She has promised to wave as our plane goes by--we'll be looking for her! And Ulla is from Denmark. I have been able to spend more time with her lately, and she kept us all laughing when we were together--I'm going to miss these girls!

We will always remember the friends we met along the way:

The Politechnika gang

Myles with Ewa, Jerzy and Marzena

Myles with Magda (who helped us with a million and one things) and the Dean of the Faculty of Management, Piotr.

The British School Moms (nothing better than girlfriends!)

The British School Kids

Maria Camilla and Emily

Trey and Emily

Natalie, Inga, Marina, Abbie

Nick, Ben, Mads: I hear that these boys have made big plans to make a trip to our house in Olathe next summer. We'll be at the airport with smiles and the minivan to pick them up!

Ben with Mr. Kevin D'Arcy (teacher and school director from Australia). He tutored us (both Ben and I) with some of the nastier geometry concepts we were doing at home. Here is the website for the school: www.bis-gdansk.pl.

Abbie and Natalie with Mr. Kevin Reilly (teacher from England). He told me recently that when the girls first started at the British school, he had a hard time understanding them with their "American accents". We have to tune our ears to understand HIM. Funny.

Trey with Miss Marta (teacher from Poland). She is so great with the little kids, and she put on the fabulous Christmas play.

Trey with Filip

Mariusz and Basia...our landlords, neighbors, friends

With Basia, one of the sweetest people I have ever met. She was a child bride at 18 years old. She is my age but her children are 23 and 19!

Karol (Mariusz & Basia's son) and his fiancee, Karolina. Karol was our official translator. He speaks English fluently. He had English in school, but says that he really learned how to speak well by watching TV. Karolina also speaks English very well.

Anita and her daddy, Mariusz, at Christmastime.

In this picture (taken in 2001), nine year old Anita is sitting at the feet of Pope John Paul II and they are looking at each other. This is a bit of a digression for this post, but I think the photo is priceless and I had to find a spot for it!

We cannot thank the people we have met enough for their explanations of simple things, assistance in many areas and friendship along the way. We gained much from these folks and we hope that we have been good ambassadors for the United States. We have extended invitations to all our friends to visit us in America, and hope that we can repay some of the kindness they all have shown to us over the past nine months.

So it's not good bye. It's "until we meet again."