decimation of the village

I am fortunate to have a very wide, very supportive "virtual village". There are so many people supporting us from afar. And for this, I am grateful.

Our physical village is much smaller. It's primarily limited two of my friends--both of whom teach at our school. These friends are the only people Lexi calls "Tyotya" (auntie). They adore her and would slay dragons for her.

These are the friends she races upstairs to see first thing every morning,

who will clear the classroom to let her dance,

who will make the ENTIRE first grade scoot over
in the middle of the Christmas concert so that Lexi can get
onstage (last minute mind-change) and sing. And then they'll take pictures.

These are the friends who stood up with us for Lexi's baptism.

They're the only grown-up friends whom Lexi is allowed to hug and accept gifts from.

We love these friends. LOVE THEM. One is a new friend this year and the other is a dear friend of many years.

And both of them are leaving next year.

I knew one was leaving. She has simply been here long enough. I know this. I KNOW she is leaving. But I can't imagine our life here without her. She not only slays dragons, she seeks them out and THEN slays them. Just today, she grabbed hold of the tail of what might have been a dragon and might just have been an iguana, whipped it out, spun it around her head a few times, banged it into submission on the floor, and THEN slayed it. She will leave an un-fillable hole.

I only found out that my other friend was leaving about a month ago.

There's not much else to say, really, except I really and truly don't know what we'll do without them. I just feel at a total loss. It's a huge, huge loss. The huts in this village looking mighty empty.