Thursday, June 17, 2021

Time is marching on toward our pending travel to Bulgaria. It certainly is an exciting time for us all on both ends of the world.

We’ve gotten a chance to chat quite a bit with Meagan this week as we count down the days until we leave. She’s been pretty active in her chats with us, which is nice. It’s good to get a feel for what she is going through at this time. There’s no doubt that she is the one who will be mostly impacted by this change.

Earlier in the week, she posted this image to one of her social media channels:

Using Google Translate (like I have been doing a lot these days), I gathered that the translation is:

“Don’t be afraid. Change is such a beautiful thing,” said the butterfly.

Sabrina Newby

I’m trying so hard to put myself in Meagan’s shoes, to sympathize with her thoughts, her emotions. I’m never going to adequately be able to do that. She realizes that her life is about to go through a very radical change. But I’m also confident that she is aware of the unknown that goes along with that change. A change in geography. A change in language. A change in her friends. A change in her family. The amount of bravery that she has is amazing to me.

One thing that I’ve noticed, both in my conversations with her and in her social media posts, is that she is having a tough time saying good-bye to her friends. And she appears to have a lot of them from her pictures. No doubt, her friends have been one of the few support groups that she has had over the past few years. Yes, she’s had caregivers who attend to her needs, frequent visits with her psychologist, a very close relationship with her social worker. But I would imagine that it has been her friends who have helped her through those tough times and been there for her to celebrate the good times. Leaving them behind, likely to never see them (or at least most of them) ever again, cannot be something that will be easy for her to do.

I am very excited about seeing Meagan again in a week. It will be very good to return to Bulgaria and to see her again. But I’m also anxious about the changes that are coming to our family and pray that I will be able to do and say the right things over the next several months, not only for Meagan, but also for everyone in our family. Change can be a beautiful thing. And I am a bit afraid of what those changes will bring and how I will handle them. But I put my trust in God and the wisdom that He gives me and I am confident that this change will be a beautiful thing.