Oh I have SO much to say about this “Home MTC” thing Claire is smack-dab in the middle of right now. But let’s take this thing in order and start with the prep for this Home MTC week.
We got home from our trip and got right to work with all the mission prep. Getting this girl ready to head to Australia!
I already talked about two of the biggest steps of mission prep, but I didn’t share pictures from all the stuff swirling around those two things.
Abby and Murphy arrived and we had a few special days with just the girls.
We shopped for mission stuff and had a special lunch one day.
A few of Claire’s friends were around before college started so it was fun to have our house filled up with a few of them here and there.
We sure missed Elle and Carson, but soaked up Grace, Abby and Murphy (Max came a couple days later).
Fun to introduce Murphy to Bo Jangles:
To eat at our fav. family spot:
To play games followed by cookie-baking (of course) each night:
We were all pretty delighted to introduce Murphy to the pool as well.
Aw we sure adore that babe.
Max arrived for a joyful reunion:
The Temple
And we headed straight to the temple.
I already wrote about my feelings about preparation for that, and the calm that followed.
It was a beautiful afternoon.
Love for Miss Murphy
Claire cannot get enough of Murphy.
Every time she thinks about her she gets this far-away “missing” look already. This is going to be very hard for her to be away from that baby for eighteen months. She adores her like no other.
So grateful there will be weekly FaceTime!
So fun to have that table filled up.
Literally:
Ha! We all got to admire that baby of ours in her “sleep suit” from every angle.
The farewell
Next it was on to the Farewell.
…which I also already posted about.
So grateful to have this older sister missionary around to help and love and build her little sister.
We had a small little open house that night.
After that, the other big kids headed out, back to work and college and life, and it was down to the four musketeers here…plus Bo Jangles.
Brushing up on Chinese memories
Claire pulled out her stuff from when we lived in China and she was in 5th grade:
She still has that love for Mandarin like she did in the old days, and is praying she can use that as a base as she dives into this language.
We found Max’s old Chinese flash cards from his mission too:
One last request from Claire was to go to the lake.
So we did. With her tiny cousin and Uncle and Aunt…and Bo Jangles.
We watched the US Open:
We tried new and old recipes:
Abby taught us the best green smoothie and I had forgotten about that delicious bread one!
We delighted over monsoon rainstorms:
Labor Day Weekend
We had a fun Labor Day weekend filled up with stuff like the baseball game. I already wrote all about those details, but a few extra photos of the game:
(Also, some answers to some questions over there…)
The arrival of the name tags
Claire’s MISSIONARY NAME TAGS arrived in the mail:
THAT is a pretty exciting day!
A Haircut
We got our hair cut right as Dave’s parents happened to drop by.
Claire decided to go to her natural hair color rather than fussing with highlights and this was the result:
Wow! A different woman! We love it.
She was saying goodbye to Dave’s parents in that picture above. They were heading to Sierra Leone to visit Dave’s sister and her husband who are mission presidents over there right now. Oh how we love them all!
A quick visit to Utah
Claire and I headed up to Utah for a quick visit to go through the temple with all the Eyres up there who couldn’t make it down here for the temple/farewell weekend.
That was a pretty special time that will have a post of it’s own tomorrow.
Back at home, before the “missionary setting apart” when Claire actually became a missionary, we fit in all the last minute preparation we could. Trying to situated suitcases and clothing and supplies to send this girl off to Australia for 18 months.
Meanwhile, Lucy has been trying to soak her in with all her might. Oh she sure adores this sister of hers. Cannot get enough of her. Loved this one night I captured when Claire was quizzing her for an anatomy test.
She set her phone on a “cheering” chime whenever Lu got an answer right, and has been such a support for that little sister. (Lu aced the test btw.)
Oh we sure love this Claire of ours! So grateful for this sacred time together before she leaves.
I bet sweet baby Murphy will *never* be afraid of a stranger … so great that she can be passed around and held by all those people and not freak out! 🙂
It seems so exclusionary for younger siblings.
Love Claire’s hair!! Also, Murphy is SO adorable.
Adore seeing all this, especially the parts that we missed! What joy to see Claire’s love for that adorable Murphy and so lovingly helping the astonishing Lucy to ace her anatomy test! Incredible!