Farewell dear friend.

We are leaving Fort Wayne on Friday. Although I am excited about Ben's vicarage and the new friends and experiences that I know we will have there, it is a sad kind of excited. Another chapter in my life, a really good chapter, is ending. Like a good book, I have to move past the part of the story that I already know and move on to see what the conclusion will bring.

There are things I won't miss about Fort Wayne - like the crazy way they drive and the fact that you can't get Chinese food delivered to your door without paying another company to go get it and bring it to you, but there are a lot of things I will.

I'll miss Lynne. A lot. A lot, a lot. She has been an amazing friend to me while I was here. The kind of friend that you can call at 3:00 am and ask for help. The kind of friend where you can rattle off a quote and you both start giggling. Also, she is one of the approximately seven people in this world that actually get me. She gets my weird sense of humor, my love of being snarky, and my general oddness. This doesn't happen very often.

I'll miss the seminary. I think that the seminary campus is one of the most beautiful and serene places I've ever been. I'll miss the students too. Because of my work in the library, I've been able to get to know a lot of these young men. They are amazing, funny, and smart guys that are going to be amazing pastors. I'll miss getting to spend time with them. I'll miss the fact that I can throw out words like tentatio or complain about my old Adam and everyone in the room knows exactly what I am saying.

I'll miss living across the street from Target. I mean...it's Target. What's not to miss?

So far, this is the place where my kids have been raised. Connor was so little when we moved here that he has basically no memory of living in Topeka, he only remembers the friends and family we have there. This is the only home that Sophia has ever known. The place she thinks about when we say we are going home. She and Elinor are Hoosiers, and it makes me sad that they won't remember ever being Hoosiers when they grow up.

In a lot of ways Fort Wayne is also the place where Ben and I grew up. It is the place where we became our own family. The place where we learned to rely solely on each other. Our parents couldn't come and rescue us when life got stressful, we had to deal with it. It was hard in the beginning, but also amazingly good for our marriage. We learned that we could deal with the tough stuff...by ourselves...if we needed to.

Goodbye Fort Wayne. You've been good to us. Now it is time for us to start another chapter in our life and see what it brings.

Thank you to everyone that has been a part of our lives for the past three years. We will miss you all so much.