"Here am I; send me"

Hi everyone. Lacey's mom, LaRae, here. Tomorrow, Monday March 8th, Lacey will have been gone ONE week. She will be sending a blog post for me to put up here all about her first week in New Mexico. Mondays will be her preparation days (aka p-day) and the day that she will send new posts to keep everyone updated on her New Mexico adventures.

But before that, I just have to share a few of my "mom" thoughts and some pics from our "goodbyes" last week. The title of today's post comes from a scripture from Isaiah (as well as 2nd Nephi in the Book of Mormon) that my brother, Mike, sent me last Monday when Lacey left ...

"Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said: Here am I; send me."

This brought tears to my eyes as I imagined my sweet daughter saying this. She has a desire to be on an errand for the Lord to help share the message of Jesus Christ with those seeking Him. This is no small task. She is choosing to leave behind her life, as she knows it, to serve for 18 months. She is leaving her friends, her education, her family, her phone, her favorite Netflix shows and social media feeds, AND her new little nephew (arguably the most painful part of leaving) to be a missionary. It is a sacrifice and it will be hard. But, to quote my friend Willow, who has a daughter returning from a mission THIS week, "as hard as it's been, it's also been the greatest! So many blessings, so much growth, so many lives changed and inspired ... it will all be worth it!" Thank you, Willow, for those insights today. My mama heart needed to hear that. I do believe it will be worth it, and I just have to say that I really admire Lacey for having such courage and desire to say, "Here am I, send me."

So, from my mom perspective, to be honest, it has been a very LONG week. It feels like Lacey has been gone forever and we are just beginning. I know it will get easier. Being a missionary mom is so much easier now than it was for the moms and families of missionaries even just a few years ago. Now missionaries can call home once a week (where it has always been just twice a year on Mother's Day and Christmas). I am so grateful for that, but seriously, not being able to see her on my 'Find my Friends' app, not being able to text her, not being able to get an immediate response on Messenger, has felt like pure torture. Maybe I'm being dramatic, but I'm not going to lie, this is HARD. After she arrived in New Mexico, we didn't hear from her for 3 days. She finally was able to FaceTime us for a few minutes on Thursday night which was THE BEST. And we will talk to her tomorrow and every Monday on a regular basis. So we all will survive and learn to appreciate each other on a whole new level. Our faith will grow and we will feel peace and love from Jesus in a way that we would not otherwise feel. We already do. It is wonderful and humbling and hard all at the same time. So here are a few pics from our goodbyes.

Sunday, February 28th - Church together as a family one last time for 18 months.

Goodbye to cousins who are the best of friends

Oh Kekeli - you are the one who will be missed the very most. Such a precious baby boy who has stolen Lacey's heart (along with the rest of the family).

Goodbye to the Segbefia family (aka Emenyo, Madi, and Kekeli)

Early Monday morning goodbye to Ben before he left for school. (Yes, he looks like he just rolled out of bed and he pretty much did!)

Goodbye to Katie as she left for her first day at her new job! (big day for both these sisters)

Mom and Dad sure love this girl! Who does she look like?

All ready to go ... but first ...

One more song to play for mom before we leave for the airport ... our super cool piano can record you when you play and then will play back the song on its own. So Lacey's song is recorded and we can listen to her "play" it whenever we want while she's gone. It's pretty awesome!

Airport selfie - almost time to go!

About to go through security and meeting Sister Gleason in person for the first time - they were in the MTC (mission training center) together and have been meeting virtually with other missionaries for the last 2 1/2 weeks. In that short time, they have become friends and are heading to New Mexico together and even get to sit together on the plane