Hasta Luego??

One thing that I am really terrible at is saying goodbye to people. I've been to Honduras and El Salvador several times each, and everytime I cry when I leave. I know that I'll be back, but I still cry and it takes a few days (or longer!) to get over it.
My first time hosting a short-term mission team (well, helping host) was in Honduras in 2004. A team of high school students came for a week and I bawled when they left. I realized that if I was going to be a long term missionary, I'd need to get over it and not let it bother me so bad to leave people.
I'm fine with the short term teams leaving now. But the first time we had an intern here in QRO for 2 months, I bawled when she left! I'm actually starting to get used to the two month people leaving. But now, we had Helena, who was here for FIVE months. I bawled when she left! It's really hard to have people leave, and Helena was especially hard... It's rare that we get people here that are truly from MY culture. Many of our interns and all of our teams are from the southern USA, and truth be told, I fit in a lot better in Mexican culture, and understand better Mexican culture than the culture of the south. Helena's from Arizona, so we're both extremely informal westerners. She's 20 and single, and speaks the same native language as I do... even with the same accent! haha! She was here for a third of the time that I've been here, so it's like she's just always supposed to be here. But she's not anymore.

Will I EVER be able to learn to deal with saying goodbye to people?! I dread the day I have to leave QRO for good if that ever happens! Even tough Helena left, I still live in the same place, have all the same friends (minus one without her), do the same things. She is the one who has to re-adjust to everything again. What happens if someday it's ME leaving here?! I don't even want to think about that...

Anyhow, God has always gotten me through the goodbyes (I want to call them BADbyes), and I suppose it might get easier...