See you soons vs. good-byes

You know when you have those people enter your life…in a weird way or unexpectedly and circumstances align just so – and then all of a sudden you can’t remember what life was like before they were around?

I have a few of those. But notably, and for the case of this mini essay one fam jam in particular.

I met T in a breastfeeding support group (yes they exist, no I didn’t EVER think I would go to one). I was 10 days in to being a Momma and we were terrible at breastfeeding. Like the worst. And I was determined (by guilt mostly) to not give up so soon…so off we went to this room in a community centre where there was a circle of Mommas with their boobs out, most crying, all sleep deprived and all desperate to feed their baby.

It was a few weeks before we got to know each other but once the hang outs started happening outside of that room the friendship was quickly cemented on our North American roots, love of day drinking and new mom status.

It helped that our littles got on so well and are so close in age – so as long baby naps at the pub turned in to running after them at the park we were always in just about the same phase, which made our time together SO easy.

I went back to work, but days off were spent having play dates and bitching about things (literally anything), shopping, drinking coffee and wine and letting the two littles entertain each other.

Two and a half years later and we’re doing the same. Adding in weekends away, nights out without the littles, sleepovers, lots of wine and gin and about a trillion WhatsApp messages from evenings and bad days…and she’s leaving me, they’re leaving us.

The three of them are off on their next adventure, returning to their homeland (although not the home state!) and while I’m excited for them – my heart is breaking just a little (ok a LOT).

The tiny human said goodbye to one of his best buddies on Sunday, and he had no idea what kind of goodbye it was. They didn’t get down our street before I was sobbing. And while we know we’ll see each other in less than a year, and there is SKYPE and FaceTime and good old fashion snail mail it won’t be the same. Not to mention every time he’s talked about her this week I’ve had to hold my emosh mess together…this will get worse as time goes on. Time zones and international moves don’t mean much to a two year old!

In my heart I know that they’ll always be a part of our lives, and we’ll have more adventures and sleep overs, the littles will chase each other around, share meals and bath times together – I also can’t help but mourn the loss of the proximity of the friendship. How easy it’s been, and how lucky we are to have these incredibly generous, loving and hilarious people 20 minutes away.

So I wish them nothing but luck and love on their next chapter – the three of them deserve all the happiness in the world.

…and thank everything for technology or I think I might actually be stopping the plane on Saturday.

a xxx