Lots of Goodbye's (Week 11)

"W": Water day! It has been Danny's "dream" to go on a boat. So Carissa, Danny, and I went paddle boating today around by the memorials. Danny got to steer the boat, and he loved it. He kept saying, "Can we do this again?" before we were even finished. It was Carissa's last day here in D.C.

One of the funniest moments of the day was in traveling there. As we were waiting to get on the train, there was a guy that walked by us wearing earphones and singing loudly to himself. He had a beard and baggy pants, was probably tone deaf, and smoking a cigarette. After he walked by, Danny said, "Heather, when that guy sings, he sounds like a girl!" I told him not to say that very loudly, so then he whispered it again...Then I told him not to say it at all. But as we were going down the escalator, this man who was singing passed by us and made a mean comment about how I was holding Danny's scooter and it was probably mine, saying it in a snobby way and getting really close to my face with his cigarette breath, so close that I could smell the smoke. This might sound vengeful, but after he walked by, all I could think about in my head was, "well, who cares, because when you sing your voice sounds like a girl." hahaha...and then I didn't feel upset by what he had said.

"X": X marks the spot! We went on a treasure hunt to find chocolate.

Also, Allison Brown came to visit today. It was nice to catch up with her again. Danny loved it too! He couldn't get her name right though. We told him it was Allison, but he kept saying "Alice." When we corrected him to say "All-i-son" he said "Alice in Wonderland?" So then he called her Wonderland the whole time. When his mom came home from work that day, the first thing he told her was "Mommy, Wonderland came over today and she is beautiful! I want to invite her to my birthday party." Then his mom was wondering who did I have over to the house that was named Wonderland? She asked me about it and I explained what had happened. :)

"Y": Yes, let's go to the pool!

We also went to the store today. On the way to the store, Danny started to talk about God, and it came up that Danny has a spirit. He thought that the idea of a spirit inside of his body was so cool and started saying, "Thank you God for giving me a spirit." Then he told me that he wanted to pray. He said, "Dear Heavenly Father, I love you." And that was it. It was tender...

"Z": Zooming to get ready to go! I just found out that instead of leaving next week, I am leaving tomorrow!! Yikes! I have so much packing to do. But I had felt like I needed to do this, so I followed my heart. It was a tough decision to make, because staying here meant another week of income. But it didn't feel right. The next minute after I changed my flight, my dad told me that he had received a letter in the mail saying that I had gotten an extra scholarship!! (This would be just a little bit more than I would've made even being here for one more week.) Once I followed my heart, everything else fell into place. I feel like God is blessing me as I try to follow his plan for me the best that I can.

This Sunday night I came home to a pleasant surprise. Danny, Chambi, and Megan had made a list of Danny's favorite things. It was really cute! I was not surprised that Tot camp made the list, because he hates theater camp and always asks if we can go to Tot Camp instead. It was cute that he also put my name on there!

My last night in DC was incredible! First Susan and I went and biked around the monuments in DC. We were able to see all of them and it only took us about an hour and a half. Then my friend Preetham came to meet up with us! I was so glad to see him too! I met Preetham when I was a missionary in Salt Lake City, and now we are both here in D.C. He took us to get some amazing Indian food and we went to eat it by the lake. It was a beautiful and fun night, and so good to spend it with my friends. I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Preetham made sure that the picture we took together had the Washington monument in it because he thinks that all of my facebook pictures have the monument in it and it must be my favorite...I kind of think that he is right.

Saying goodbye to Danny was really hard...but I know that I'll be back again! And he gave me a flower that I can keep to remind me of him until then. :) I love his new Redskins jersey that he got for his birthday! It is so cute! I bet that Daniel will grow up to be an athlete someday!

I left just before his birthday party, but I got to help setup for it. A magician came, and each of the kids had hats with their names on them, bow ties, and wands. I'm sure that it turned out to be really cute! Daniel's favorite birthday present seemed to be the bubble wrap, Styrofoam, and lollipops that he received along with his gifts.