Where has the time gone?

Well, it's literally been years since I have actually added something to this blog.  No way to play catch up, so I think I will just press forward.  It has been a whirlwind of a month in the Riker household.  

In March, Kate left to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, for 18 months in Tempe Arizona.  She was assigned to go to Tempe, she did not get to choose where to go.  I was posting pictures on Facebook and comments about her letters, when a friend of mine posted this:

I keep seeing the updates about Kate and her mission. I don't know much about serving a mission....can you explain the experience? Are you not able to contact each other, how long will she serve, how does she support herself, etc? Every time I see her photos I have these questions so I thought I would ask. I am sure other non-Mormons are wondering the same???

Yikes!  I had forgotten to write exactly what Kate was doing on this "mission" she decided to serve.  So my answer was this:

 I forget to explain it all, thanks for asking. So young men age 18 and young women age 19 can choose to serve a mission for our church. The young men serve for 2 yrs and the young women for 1 1/2 years. They are assigned an area, anywhere in the world. They do not get to choose where they go. They will pay for their time that they serve, Kate has saved some money and we will help her out with the rest. They go and teach about Jesus Christ and serve the communities where they are assigned. For example, two young men that were assigned here in Ashburn took the stump out of the yard so Theresa and I could plant a garden. They did it as service. They also teach the gospel of Jesus Christ to those that are interested in learning. It is a lot of hard work and a lot of blessings at the same time. She will have the hardest times of her life, (up to this point) and the best times and hopefully gain a stronger relationship with her savior. She will email us weekly and let us know how she is doing. That is something they ask them to do each week on their preparation day. That is a day that they can do laundry, grocery shop and catch up on writing letters. The other days of the week are devoted only to serving others. She can skype us on Mother's Day and Christmas. But other than that and email, we will not see her until the end of September 2017. Alan and I both chose to serve missions. Alan served in Alabama and I served in Chile. So we are excited for her choice to serve, and look forward to hearing from her weekly. WIth technology they way it is now, it is so weird not to hear from your child daily. haha We are spoiled. 

Having a child out on a mission does not just give her opportunities to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, but me too.  So many blessings from Kate's decision to dedicate this time to serve the Lord and so many opportunities for me to share her experiences with others.  Faith building for myself and my family and others.

I LOVE getting her letters each week, how I wish they were so much longer, that she had time to pour her heart out to me each week.  I sometimes feel sad and think why can't she write more, and then I think, her time is precious, she has other priorities, more important priorities with eternal outcomes.  Oh ya, it is not about me, it is about Him.  This is a lesson I learn from her as well.

So long story short, she is in AZ until the end of September 2017 and I love that she chose that.  I miss her like crazy, but just look at that smile and glow.  That is worth it.

In the first picture Sister kate is with the Mission President and his wife.  They are assigned to preside over/take care of 200+ missionaries.  The other picture is of Sister kate in front of the Mesa Arizona Temple.  

As soon as we finished with sending Kate off, we prepared ourselves to travel to Rexburg Idaho for the graduation of our oldest child from Brigham Young University-Idaho.  Mary graduated in History with a minor in English.  How did we get to the age where we have a child graduating from college.  SOOOO proud of her accomplishment!  After graduation, we filled her car up with all the crap stuff she collected over the last 5 years and drove with her to Provo, Utah. Where she will learn to adult. Or at least start to learn to adult, since I am still on the learn to adult path myself. 

I feel like every time we start to recreate "normal" we have another big moment in our lives.  While I love every minute of my kids growing up, sometimes I miss the littles, when we were all under one roof.  It doesn't feel like it was that long ago and yet,...............

Can you see the difference?  All grown up now.  

I feel disconnected from everything I have known.  Missing who I was, trying to figure out who I am now........evolving, adulting.  So I thought I would go back to this blog and write out my thoughts and feelings about the ever changing Riker family.  So for now, while one is adulting in Utah and one is adulting in Arizona,  here is our new "normal" at least for a year, until the next one flies the nest.