Twelve Thirty (young girls are coming to the MTC)

WARNING: this post is quite possibly the longest blog in the history of blogging. 

No joke, I fully expect blogger to email me any minute asking for this to be truncated, divided into several posts, or just deleted altogether.  It's just that long. 

You'll be shocked to know that I only posted a fraction of the photos we took, too.  I know, it's a ton of pictures.  It was hard to leave any out. 

I want to remember every single minute of this day before 12:30pm.

Here's the recap:

This morning started by loading the car with Hillary's three suitcases and getting some yummy breakfast at Kneaders.  Most of us had chunky cinnamon french toast, but Grace chose a breakfast croissant. She's a clever girl, with everyone else having all-you-can-eat french toast, she got to have a little of both.

From there we headed toward Provo and the MTC. Then took a little stop at the mall. 

Maddie is frantically searching for the perfect dress for the Sweetheart's dance this weekend.  She thought she had it all set, but then changed her mind.  We had about half an hour, so we dashed into the mall while Lee and the younger kids went to fill the car with gas.

The mall was a fail on two counts. We have a couple of favorite shops but neither had anything that was Maddie's style.  Dress strike out.  And then I let Hillary go off to the bathroom by herself while I helped Maddie try on dresses.  I guess that fail was not the mall's fault. Just a slacker mom-companion. Hills admitted she considered running away, mostly just to make me realize what a forgetful companion I am.

We had been warned about the quick turn around at the curb-side drop-off at the MTC.

We went to the Provo temple to take some photos and say our goodbyes.

This is our Germany-bound girl with the MTC in the background (through the trees).

Best friends and sisters

After those photo attempts with the MTC in the background, we walked up to the temple grounds. 

Obligatory jumping photos: 

12:30pm was drawing nigh. 

It was time to start saying our goodbyes.

She started with Kai.

Then Gracie Lou.

And Pearlie girl. 

 

I could hardly bear to watch this goodbye. 

These two have always been best friends.

With Maddie's mission plans, they will be apart for 2.5 years.

Hills saying goodbye to Maddie Love Cake.

My heart is breaking.  I know that this is the goal. I have a wonderful, capable, prepared girl ready to serve the Lord. There is nothing more in the world I could want for her. But it still is hard to let her go away. 

I will miss her so much. Every day.

Another difficult goodbye.   

Next stop, the MTC.

Lee timed the drop off and it was literally 5 minutes from when we drove into the MTC until we were pulling away from the curb.

It wasn't as bad as we had been told.

Elder Winkel of Las Vegas, Bulgaria bound, actually opened my car door to help me out to say goodbye to Hillary. We had heard that the missionaries wouldn't let us out of the car, only the missionary.

We were told that they were expecting 830 missionaries today. More than a third and less than half are sisters (we're not sure on the percentage there...we heard these vague statistics from the man at the gate and also from Elder Winkel).

But both confirmed that this is the most sisters ever to enter the MTC in a day.

Hillary walking away with Elder Winkel.

 More walking, more crying

She just kept on walking away. And crying. She is kind of laughing, too because right about now, another elder who was also there to host an incoming missionary, told her how 'fun' the MTC is. This has been our little joke the past week or so. We say, "Disneyland is fun, a mission to Germany will be many things, but fun is an adjective we are saving for Disneyland." So hearing that missionary say it would be fun made us all laugh.  

We decided to go get a treat at the BYU bookstore before we headed home. 

THIS WAS OUR FIRST FAMILY MISSIONARY MIRACLE:

Maddie found the perfect dance dress at the BYU BOOKSTORE!!

When we had an ample supply of chocolate-covered cinnamon bears and m&m's, we drove home.

Hillary had left notes and small gifts for everyone hidden in their rooms.  So, we had another round of tears as everyone read the sweet things Hillary had to say.

Lee and I didn't find notes in our room.  Lee found his at work in his computer bag.  Mine was hand delivered by my sweet friend Mandi, along with this QUILT she and Hillary had been in cahoots on.  I couldn't even read Hillary's note for several hours as I was crying from this competely unexpected surprise.

Mandi made this quilt for me! It is perfect in every way.  I love it and I love that it was made by my best friend. Love, love, love!

This is the detail on the back.  Hillary took some fabric scraps from my stash and they made this heart for the back of the quilt.  I am overwhelmed by this, I love it so much.

Goodbye, my sweet Hildegarde.  I will miss you like crazy but I'm so excited to hear all about your adventures serving the Lord in Germany.  But first I want to hear about the MTC and your success in learning to speak German.

Phew, enough from me!

From now on this blog will be the correspondence sent by Hillary through email. 

I'll post what she sends. 

Let's keep our fingers crossed she sends lots of photos. 

I think we can all agree we want to see lots of pictures of her and what's up at the MTC and in Germany.