Our Beloved Lincolns

How many grown women cry over the neighbor kids moving away?  I mean literally…I was crying earlier today at the thought of our backyard being empty.  Whenever we see a shadow moving outside our back door it’s either the trees swaying in the wind or one of our beloved Lincolns coming to see what we’re doing.  I got really sad today thinking that pretty soon it will only ever be the trees.  They have been an amazing and unexpected blessing to our family in so many ways the past year we’ve lived here.  To where I honestly don’t know how we will get along without them.  I feel so sad for my children, losing their best friends and I don’t know how to explain it to them in a way they’ll fully understand.  I’ve tried to prepare them and talk to them about what a fun summer we will still have.  I know that this is just a part of life, friends come and friends go. But it is hard, VERY HARD, to have your kids experience one of their first “this-is-just-part-of-life” moments.  And maybe it’s pregnancy that is making me so emotional about this.  I just don’t think Audrey will get it for a long time that the Lincolns are gone and they’re not coming back.  And that she cant go knock on that window anymore to see if they can come out and play.  Even Hannah has started doing that.  I feel sad that Hannah wont really remember them. 

These kids were really not just our kid’s friends, they were ours too.  They are always in our house playing, and sometimes the older two just come talk to me while I’m making dinner.  They are homeschool kids, which has made their friendship even more of a miracle because they are around all the time.  This has sometimes been my saving grace during a Menieres episode.  Their mom will send them over to bring our girls to their house for awhile so I can rest.  All of our kids have spent the last few months running back and forth between our apartment and theirs.  Today we took them all to the park while their parents packed the Uhaul and cleaned the apartment, and it was the last of many times that we got to have them as our practice kids, our practicing having a big family, what it would really be like.  I have been able to practice being kind of some sort of mother figure to 6 kids.  And I’ve really enjoyed it.  I love their parents too, Stephanie and Brent, their house has been a second home for our girls, especially Audrey and how they've lent us their kids to be older siblings to our girls.  They have been very influential for me- the simplified way they live, the way they prioritize their lives and focus on whats really important, the friendship and support they’ve offered us right from the beginning when they brought that first bag of hand-me-downs in the first two weeks we lived here.  We've had so many wonderful times with this family and we will never forget them.  We are SO grateful to have known them and been so close to them.  

me and my two hannahs!

audrey and naomi, two peas in a pod

BFF.  stephanie and i hope to have them be pen pals.

watermelon, oranges, candy, sprinklers, and friends to play with.  nothing in the world better than this.

our park time quickly turned into a water fight because the sprinklers were on.  andrew and the three oldest kids took to spraying and dumping water on each other while the three younger girls splashed in puddles up higher until they were wet up to their necks.  it was a nice hot day for it and it just felt like summer is coming!

our soaking wt hannah

big hannah won the prize for getting the most wet.
she tried to lay down and make an imprint on the concrete

audrey and naomi tired of the park and instead sat
under a tree and found some dirt to play in while they chatted

the past few months hannah has taken a particular liking to gabe,
the oldest boy.  she is often looking for him,
and she loves to come really close to his face to
tell him something interesting, like that she
had a graham cracker that day.  And gabe doesn't
seem to mind a bit, he loves her right back!

We love the Lincolns.  They have been a very special part of our lives.  And I will try to stop my heart from breaking and instead be happy for them and the new chapter of their life that is starting. 

I need to focus on the good things about the new chapter of life we’re about to start, instead of only seeing the sad and scary things!  Why is it so hard?

I think it’s time for our life to reinvent a little.  I’m not quite sure exactly how.  But the first thing is for me and my girls to become the best of friends.  We already are…but I feel that it’s time for us to try and fill each other up more and become even more of our own little community.  To find even more fulfillment in just being together.  I'm nervous for the future, I always am.  I’m praying so much for Heavenly Father’s help with this.  Because I still am not driving and we are looking at A LOT of stay at home days and weeks with just the three of us girls.  And although we’ve loved our backyard, I know that my girls are not that interested in spending a lot of time out there unless Lincolns are there to play with.  We all need more patience- I need patience with them being a 2 and 3 year old and they need to learn patience with my lack of energy and abilities right now.  We need to grow, the three of us girls.  And with Heavenly Father’s help we will.