Today is our last day in the place we have called home for the last three and a half years. It's our last day walking through the beautiful streets of Gent. Our last day seeing dear friends and eating food that we have come to love. It's our last day in the town where our dear Zoe was born. It's our last day!
Thank you Belgium for accepting us with open arms, despite the fact that we still don't speak your language(s) as well as we should. Thank you for being patient and helping us as we adjusted to the way of life here. Thank you for sharing your vibrant city, your beautiful buildings, your history, the people who pass through each day. Thank you for pushing us out of our comfort zone and making us move forward thorough difficult or uncomfortable situations so we could grow and learn. Thank you for being uniquely you and as a result, the little idiosyncrasies that have become endearing (for the most part).
Thank you for amazing neighbors, both Belgian and non-Belgian, who welcomed us into our apartment and made us feel at home. Thank you for the wonderful bakery, pharmacy, and gelato shop just down the street and the people who worked there and became a part of our day to day life. Thank you to the incredible school that helped us all grow and learn so much, again, pushing us outside our comfort zone to meet and know people from other countries. Thank you to the dear expat friends who walked this journey with us, understanding the things that seemed crazy or difficult for us. Thank you to the many Belgians who welcomed us into the community and invested in our lives, even though we would certainly leave some day. Thank you for a wonderful church family that welcomed us and invested in our lives from the first week we were here. There are too many people to thank to name them all individually...our hearts have been filled by meeting so many wonderful people; people who will stay in our hearts forever.
These past weeks have been filled with many emotions. Our hearts have been full of thankfulness for all the things we have experienced, sadness because of what we are leaving, excitement for what's to come, anticipation of being back with our dear family and friends back home, regret, happiness, fear, and on and on.
At the end of the day, we hope that we made the most of this experience. Of course there are always things that we could have done better...we could have learned more Flemish, we could have traveled more, we could have explored our city and country more, we could have met more people in our community, etc...but we hope that, when we look back at this time, we will see that we did what we could and lived to fullest. We also hope that we were good ambassadors for the U.S. and that we made a difference in some way during our time here; that we left our mark on this place in some small way. We have loved our time here and there is very little that we will not miss!
Tomorrow, we will walk onto a plane, a little slower than normal, knowing that we won't be returning, at least not any time soon. The weight of that knowledge is real, but we thank God for this opportunity and experience. We thank God for what has happened and what is to come.
Hartelijk bedankt, België! Wij zullen u missen!
