The Last Day.

Welp, it's finally here.

My last day at Rising Star. I've been dreading today since the day I applied to volunteer here. 

I knew it would be hard to say goodbye to all  these beautiful children and people here, but I never expected it to be so hard! 

Mary, Grandpa and I were planning on leaving RSO on Friday to fly to Hyderabad, but we had a family emergency and grandpa had to fly back to Mumbai early. So we cut the Hyderabad trip and Mary and I got to stay a few extra days here at RSO. 

I was really sad we couldn't go to Hyderabad because my awesome cousin Chris is serving a mission there, but the last few days here at RSO have been really nice. It's bittersweet. You win some, you lose some. 

All of the other volunteers left at 2:45 Friday morning, so they all had to say their goodbyes to the children before dinner on Thursday evening. That was hard. That's when it really started to sink in that my impending doom, I mean departure was quickly approaching. Not cool. 

Some of the volunteers cried as they said the goodbyes, and if you know me at all, you know that I was bawling, too. One because I'm a sympathy crier, two because I don't want to leave, and three because just the thought of leaving RSO makes the water works start. 

It was so sad. The children were so sad that I was crying. They would come up to me, literally wipe the tears off my face (which was so tender that I cried even more) and say, "Auntie, why you crying? Here till Monday. No cry yet."  To which I would respond, "Yes, I leave Monday, I'm just sad because I never want to leave and I don't want the other volunteers to leave either." Then they would bobble their cute little heads and hug me so tight. Which again, only increased the water works running down my face. My eyes were like a fire hose that night. And I didn't even care. Sometimes you just have to let it happen. 

Two of my sweet little tear wipers, Roseline and Dhanalakshmi. 

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I do not want to leave these sweet children. Their love is so pure and gentle. So real. They have so much love to give. You can just see it emanating from their eyes. 

Priya

Ranjith and I. 

Vaishnavi 

Manoj (and Hannah Montana). 

Sagayam. 

Enockli. 

Michael. 

Praveen Kumar.

Krishna and mango. 

Sweet little Shalini and I. 

Abineya. 

Guna. 

And these are only a tiny fraction of the 238 children that are here. 

I know this post is very similar to my last one, I just do not want to leave. 

These children have stolen my heart. 

STOLEN IT. 

Basically this post has just been another rambling, a way for me to sort of vent.

I just want you to comprehend, even if only in the slightest way, that these children have my heart. And I don't want it back. I'm leaving it here, at least a part of it. 

And if home is where the heart is, then I have a second home in India. A home I'm praying I'll be able to return to frequently and hopefully soon. Hope that's okay dad. . . . . *cue awkward silence and crickets*

Anyway, say a little prayer for me that I'll make it through today without completely dehydrating myself. And making a fool of myself. 

But when India has your heart, your heart breaks when you have to leave it.  

Let's do this. 

Carpe Diem. 

Love, Kir.

P.S. Some of the children here wanted a Book of Mormon for themselves, so one of the coordinators got s bunch of them. If we wanted to, we could write our testimonies and a little message in the front of one of them and give it to that child. I did one for a boy named Vinnarasan. He is so sweet and my new best friend. Today I will be giving one each to three girls today. Can't wait. 

I don't even care that this picture is hideous times a billion. It was a special moment I'll always remember.