One Leaves the Nest
The day I always knew would come has finally arrived. It's still hard to believe and even harder to handle, taking Lindsey to BYU-Idaho.
Wednesday was a rough day. Lindsey and I worked on getting her things all packed. Multiple times we'd get teary eyed. Sometimes I'd have to make sure she wasn't around as I started to cry because I didn't want to make it harder on her when she'd see me cry. In the evening after we had family prayer, Jaime gave Lindsey a blessing with everyone around. He blessed her to be able to do well in school and have peace and comfort. Good health and not wear out. He blessed her to remember that she can always ask for any help she may need. It was a sweet prayer. Afterwards Lindsey cried and gave everyone hugs goodnight. Olivia was having the hardest time.
These two are thee best friends! My heart broke when I walked in to Olivia's room and saw these two like this. Olivia's face in her hands and Lindsey's arms around her. I tried to maintain my composure. Told Olivia that Lindsey would be back again. Olivia responded with, "But she's going to be gone a long time!" This is true. And Lindsey may never come back for very long again. That's what makes this truly hard.
Thursday afternoon Jaime got home from work early and we hit the road with Lindsey and her stuff loaded up. None of us were looking foward to this long drive, mainly because we knew we wouldn't all be coming back together. Lindsey was quiet for most of the drive. I'd have to ask her questions to get her to talk. I know she was nervous to go. We drove till Boise, had dinner at Tucano's. It's was probably the fast we have ever been seated at that restaurant. We enjoyed dinner and took our time because we didn't feel like we were in any hurry.
We only drove to Burley, Idaho. We got there about 10pm and checked in to our hotel for the night. I didn't sleep great as I kept thinking about Lindsey. Thinking that my time with her was literally down to hours. Friday morning as we got up and drove the next couple hours to Rexburg I literally had a heavy stomach feeling, lump in my throat, and an ache in my chest.
Friday we got to her apartment, The Cedars, about 11am. We loaded up our arms and went up to the third floor, room 310. Three of her 5 roommates were there in the living room. Lindsey was the last one to move in. The girls were very nice and even came to help unload the car and bring stuff up to the apartment. I helped Lindsey get some things unpacked. Put stuff away in her kitchen cupboards and bathroom drawers and shelves. Jaime worked on setting up her printer which proved more difficult than we thought it would be. We got Lindsey's bed made and the printer still wouldn't connect. It was almost 1pm and Lindsey left to go to the park to meet up with many other students from Pasco. It was good for her to go visit and have pizza with familiar faces from home. We hoped to get the printer set up before it was time to go pick up Lindsey's grocery order in Idaho Falls but it just wouldn't connect because of the kind of wifi the apartment had. We picked up Lindsey at 1:30 then headed to Idaho Falls.
The grocery order was super easy and convenient. It was great just having it all loaded up into the car and not having to go through the aisles to get everything she needed. However, we did go in to the store to get some other things that she'd need. A small plastic dresser, bins and baskets, cupboard shelves to give more shelving space on her pantry shelves, hangers, and some food that she chose as we did a short sweep through the food aisles in case we missed anything.
After shopping we grabbed some lunch at Panda Express since it was next to Walmart. Then we headed back to the apartment. Unloaded all the groceries and other items. Everyone was gone from her apartment. I just couldn't make myself leave her there with no one else! Plus, the printer still wasn't working. Jaime bought a cable for it and got it all set up for her to do direct printing rather than wireless printing. While he did that Lindsey and I put groceries away and got everything organized.
She asked me to help her put up her Elvis poster that she got while we were in Nashville. It was printed on the original blocks that were used to print the same posters back when Elvis was touring. We used command strips to hang the poster. It was definitely a two person job so I'm glad I stayed to help her get it up. All that was left to do was her clothes. I thought, well do we leave now? But again, she'd be all alone! She was teary eyed and had a red nose as she was thinking we were leaving. I asked her if she was going to text someone to hang out with or wanted to put away her clothes. She said she'd like help putting them away. I couldn't tell her no! So we helped her put her clothes away.
Lindsey's room. She's got a pretty good set up!
As we were putting away the clothes, Lindsey's in-room roommate got there. Maddie, first time meeting her. She's from Rigby so lives 15 minutes away. She's taking one religion class and living there just to have the college experience but is going to esthetician school and taking lash extension classes. She wants to work in the beauty field. So she won't be around that much. She said she will be going home to eat at her mom's a lot. She's super nice and very friendly and said she knows a lot about the school and area from family and living there so she could help Lindsey with many questions she may have. I thought that was nice of her. We found out that the other girls went to the fair and one went to a football game with her mom. (Two of Lindsey's roommates are from Idaho Falls, Idaho who know each other; one from Rigby, Idaho; two from Montana who know each other from home; and then Lindsey is from Washington.) The girls weren't expected to get back till about 10. Lindsey asked Maddie what she was planning on doing, she said she was going to see her friend who just got married. Lindsey would have stayed to hang out with Maddie but since she was leaving Lindsey decided to go to dinner with Jaime and I.
On our way to dinner we stopped to get Lindsey's picture with the BYU-Idaho sign. Look at that smile. As much as she's sad to see us go and nervous about the uncertainty of this new life, I know that she's also excited.
We had the worse Mexican food we've ever had at Gringo's. Maddie recommended it. Lindsey's fajitas were the best part of the dinner I think. Idaho does not know how to make Mexican food. lol. The last time I tried Mexican food in Rexburg I was a student here. And it wasn't good then either. hahah.
Lindsey was able to take her left over fajitas home. With our leftovers from lunch and her leftovers from dinner she will have easy meals the next two days. :) We walked her back up to her room. Talked with her a bit. Gave a few more tidbits of advice. She knew it was time for us to go. She started crying and giving us hugs. It was sooo hard to leave! But it was 9:38 and I said her roommates will probably be home soon. I felt it best if we were gone before they got there. I also hoped that they'd be home soon so that she wouldn't be alone for too long. I had the biggest lump in my throat as I willed my tears to stay away as we walked out of her apartment. I wanted to turn back around and tell her to come stay with us in the hotel but knew that would only make the next day's goodbye just as hard. I couldn't keep putting us all through this hard goodbye.
On our drive to Idaho Falls to stay at our hotel I saw Lindsey had just posted a picture of her room.
I love that she used our new # of grandpa's quote. Obviously I cried as I saw this but I felt so happy that she's looking for the positive and realizing that she will have fun. It's hard not to when you're in a place like this. She will be in my constant prayers and I look forward to every text, call, polo, and FaceTime. I hope she will want to tell me things that she's excited or worried about.
This morning was hard getting up and leaving Idaho Falls, knowing we were leaving and going to be moving further and further away from Lindsey. I feel like I've left a piece of my heart in Rexburg. She did text me this morning. (I can't tell you how happy that made me.) The girls got home around 10 like they said and they all stayed up late and watched a movie together. They talked about going to a party tonight together. I really hope they continue to include Lindsey and she can make good friendships with them. I'm praying she has a good time at the party!
I've had many people reach out via Facebook saying they're close by BYUI that if Lindsey needs ANYTHING she can get help from them. I'm grateful for the friends and connections that we've made over the years and for their generosity and kindness to want to serve if they're needed. Knowing there's others not too far away who would help does give me some peace.
I've prayed she's capable of taking care of herself and being able to manage her time well. I need to stop being her parent-chute and trust she's learned enough to fly on her own.
I can hardly wait till I can see her again and hold her again. 💖
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