Bittersweet Goodbye to Eliza

Most of you know about our sweet Eliza. Eliza Olsen was our nanny for the past 11 weeks of DTS. She did her DTS at this same base 2 years ago and is still good friends with a lot of the staff and by the end of her time here, she was good friends with the DTS students and SBS students. Eliza has a way of making everyone around her happy. She is always positive, cheerful, joyful and speaking encouraging words of life and making those around her feel appreciated and loved. How? you may ask yourself? It is Jesus shining through her everyday. She is so fun to be around and a good influence on me :-)

Eliza was also great with our kids. I know that she loved them and prayed for them each day and the kids could tell by the way they responded to her in love also. She had a lot of responsibility and handled it with grace. She took Selah to school in the morning and many mornings walked her into her classroom, then she came back and took Kiera to her preschool and then had Mason for the morning. At noon, she would pick Kiera up and feed the kids lunch (we were always late to lunch, so she would have them fed before we got to the cafeteria). Then she had a small break before coming back to put Mason down for a nap and hang out with Kiera for the afternoon until 3:30. We tried to let her have evenings off, but she was always willing to be with the kids during evening lecture if we needed her.

ALSO - Eliza helped me with laundry (read between the lines - she did the laundry, folded the clothes and then put them away), washed our dishes, ran errands around the base and in Lakeside for us. You name it she was always willing to help.

We have one more week here without Eliza and it is so strange. Every girl I see with long hair, I check to see if it is Eliza.

Below is a picture of the 6 of us on her last night here. The other two pictures are from the going away dance party for Eliza - this was the end of the night when everyone was praying for her and encouraging her. It was so great to see how many lives she impacted in the short time she was here. Another testament to her impact is that when she was leaving at 5:15 the next morning (after a dance party that didn't end until midnight), the SBS guys on her hall, all got up to carry out her luggage and wish her a farewell.

Oh, I forgot to mention the best part, the reason Eliza left early was to go meet her new nephew - Thaddeus!!! 

Eliza - we love you and we miss you!!!