Saying Goodbye

This past weekend my big sissy Renee came out all the way from Boston to meet her new nephew. I was super excited to have her come; I hadn't seen her since last June, and was only a few weeks into my pregnancy. It is amazing how much a life can change in less than one year. A year ago today, I wasn't pregnant, or married for that matter. Mom had just finished her chemo, and life was looking pretty good. I found out that I was pregnant a few weeks before Renee and her boyfriend Ryan came to visit for two weeks. It was a fun visit, but its always hard to say goodbye. Especially when you know how much things will be changing. She never got to see me big and pregnant, I wasn't really showing by the time she had come and gone. Less than a year goes by before she is back, and I am no longer pregnant but have an almost 2 month old little boy here with us! And now Robin is largely pregnant, due in less than a month, so at least she got to see that!
They plan on coming out for a good 2 week visit later this summer, which in our time doesn't seem like really too far away, but in baby time, it's light years. As she was getting ready to jump on her jet plane back to her big city of Boston and her man, tears filled both our eyes to think of how much change will happen in the mere months that will go by between now and then. Rowan will be anywhere from 5-6 months old when she returns next, probably crawling, and who knows what else he will be doing. Gwen (Robins little girl) will be almost 3 months old, and on the fast track of change like Rowan is already.
It is amazing, as our families grow older, and move on in life and the big world, how time can pass so freely when people are close without seeing them. But once someone takes the jump, and moves across the country, how much longer those periods of not seeing one another feel - maybe because of the lack of the option of just jumping in the car and seeing them shortly. It makes the time spent with family who live close more precious, because you never know who might be moving away next. And it is amazing, how hard it is to say good bye, even when the next trip is already being planned; even if they lived closer and you might not see them for as long a period of time; it's interesting how as we get older, saying good bye gets harder every time.