Sad night for me...

Tonight was a sad night for me.  I have been dreading this evening for the whole week.  I knew that we would be going over to say our goodbyes to Lian Ma Ma.  She leaves tomorrow for China.  I have been crying all week about it.  Crazy- I know.  She is such a sweet lady to me and I am already missing her.  She was Grant's ayi for a few months (2 years ago) and Garrett's for even shorter, but I always felt something special whenever I was around her.  She was one of the only people that visited me when we lived in Land O Lakes 2 summers ago.  I only had Grant and he was a difficult 5 month old.  She would bring me dinner and come over and hold the baby.  The first time Grant crawled was in her house.  We gave her rides to the Chinese Christian Church and this year we even took her up to our farm in Brooksville.  Deep down I always knew that she would be a great investigator for the church- I was just waiting for the right time.  Last week, before I found out she was moving, I ordered $100 worth of Mandarin Chinese church stuff off the website.  A few days later I found out the bad news about her going and I was worried that it would not get here in time.  I was lucky to receive all the materials on Saturday, so I picked out just 1 book to give her.  It is all in Chinese so I asked John if he thought it would be ok.   It is "The Latter-day Saint Woman" Part B- (This manual contains 35 lessons to help women and young women learn the principles and doctrines of the gospel, live righteously, develop homemaking skills, and use their time and talents to bless others. It is used as a resource for Relief Society instruction and may also be used for instruction in home, family, and personal enrichment meetings.)  I told John to tell her that it would be great reading for the plane.  I hope she likes it, we'll see.  She gave us her address and I am going to write and send her some pictures that we took this evening of her and the boys. Tonight is finally over...thank goodness.  Now I am just waiting for the sadness to go away.