These days are together, well because that's how it was in real life. It was a really long "day" as we worked 7 hours, celebrated, packed, celebrated, ate our final center dinner, celebrated some more, before traveling back overnight to the states. Lane intended to write in the journal that evening, but the day just didn't allow for it. He did however write an amazing overview for the final Minga post.
We have a ton of great photos and videos from this day, so I am going try to keep it short, but it was a long and memorable day that I hope the photos/videos convey.
We started our work day again at 8am, but this time we had to all pile into the center truck and an employee's CRV as the bus couldn't be on the road during peak traffic hours that day. Once we got to the house, we did many of our same jobs that we had been doing, only today we moved at a little slower pace. We knew exactly what we needed to accomplish and had agreed to extended our work day by 2 hours to make sure it all got done. We also worked on our secondary garden project. Caitlin had a great idea, and we literally left our mark on the project in memory of Amber and Augustine (Luz's deceased husband). German & #Chicaiza made a concrete garden marker for all of us (Crusaders, the family, and some of the staff) to leave our hand-prints. It will be moved to the garden that we helped plant with Luz in the front of her house.
After our work was done, we celebrated some with the staff until the family had returned from picking little Daniel up from the Center daycare. Then we had an emotional celebration with the family and said our goodbye's to them. Their gratitude and joy will never be forgotten. As we drove away, they stood by the door waving to us until we couldn't see them any longer.
When we got back to the center, we had such an amazing time. The center staff greeted us with gifts (wooden crosses made at the center workshop) and gave such kind words of once again gratitude. We continued the celebration in the dinning area with staff and volunteers. It was really hard to make ourselves go shower, clean, and pack so we all took turns so that the party didn't have to stop. We set one huge table for dinner, and had the most delicious (and most traditional) dinner since we arrived. We continued to celebrate even after dinner...we all just knew we had to head downstairs to get on the bus to the airport by 9:30 pm and we had no plans on slowing down until then. Wanting to make sure that German and Caitlin would never forget us, Lanna and Sydnie literally took the shirts off their backs to give to them. As we were welcomed into the WBC/CMT family forever, they too are part of the HnS family 4-ever!
When the time came, German and Caitlin walked us down. It was so hard to say those last goodbyes. We had come with great expectations on this journey and the outcome far exceeded anything we could ever imagine. We caught our flight a little after midnight, flew about 5.5 hours overnight to Houston and then drove back to Dallas exhausted.
It was an extremely long day...so many hugs, tears, laughs...but everyone talked about how it was still too short. No one was ready to truly say goodbye. How could we? The Center is a place of magic. Stripped from so many things we think we need in life, we were able to help a family, gain a whole new family, humble our hearts, and heal in a way we didn't even know was possible.
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