What's On My Happy List?

SO...there is some big news coming from our house.........

After much, much thought, consideration and prayer Kyleigh has made the exciting, scary, selfless, life-changing decision to 

serve an LDS church mission! 

We've known for sometime now that this was a possibility.... but boy it doesn't reeeallly hit home until those papers have been submitted. AND THE CALL COMES! 

She got her call last Thursday, on the 19th. Our Stake President called the night before and gave us heads up that it could be coming in the mail the next day. Awe. 
Such a flurry of anticipation and wonder!
{The Stake President's and Bishops have a way of checking on line... if and when calls have been assigned. She turned her papers in Feb. 3, was assigned on the 11th and received it in the mail the following week} Luckily for her it was only a little over a two week process. She's heard horror stories of it taking weeks. 

So anyhow.....  

The doorbell rang at 11:30 that morning. I was tied up trying to do a few last things before Kate and I had to leave to pick up my nephew, so I didn't get to the door right away. I did get there in time to see the mailman heading back to his mail truck. I was a little surprised to see him, only because our mail always comes in the afternoon. He noticed me come out...I saw the big white envelope in the mailbox and instantly knew what was going down. 

He knew that I knew what it was, and I knew he knew what that letter contained. obviously!...because he had tried to hand deliver it to the door. He told me he tries to deliver "those" first thing in the morning. Gosh, such a sweet gesture! {That alone made me want to cry.} 
In fact it's go'in down as my favorite, and only 
"mailman moment." HA!

The envelope itself...from the office of  the First Presidency...WOW...gives you chills. 

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS KYLEIGH GOING?

For several weeks we've had this huge world map displayed in our family room.  A pin for every guess to where she may be going. ;) So fun! For the most part only extended family, Kyleigh's close friends, and a few family friends knew she was even going on a mission. She's a pretty private person... who does not like undue attention drawn to herself. So for months... she has asked that we keep the whole mission thing on the down low... until she received her call. Even then, we didn't say much until it was announced three days later at church. 

She likes a good surprise!   

That said we still had guesses from 75+ people....

It was so interesting to hear where people thought she would serve. 

Just to give you an idea of what people were thinking..... 

The majority had her pinned going foreign rather than stateside, but not by far..Top three guesses were France, Canada {in particular Montreal/Quebec French speaking}, and England. Other places with significant multiple guesses..New York, Virginia, California, Nauvoo, Hawaii, Spain and Brazil. 

Dad was one of the ones who pegged her going to Spain.

I had her going to Nauvoo. {Kyleigh loves early church history, so I could totally see her serving at one of the church historic sites, or at a temple visitor center...if not Nauvoo, Kirkland or upstate New York, etc.} 

secretly hoping she'd be called to Europe though. anywhere in Europe. ;)

Emma said Halifax Nova Scotia and Hannie said Quebec. -made total sense since Kyleigh studied French for three years in school. 

Brie said Japan {more as joke than anything} and Kate pointed to China lol ... so we pinned hers in Hong Kong. 

Kyleigh's dream mission..Scotland/Ireland. If they took her heritage in consideration, not too far fetched as we have three lines of Scottish blood run-in through us. 

So for the most part, the general consensus was stateside, Europe or Canada.  

Later that night when family and close friends had gathered....
The big moment came...  
Her. reaction. was. priceless!

The Big Reveal on video....

Out of 75+ guesses no one guessed THIS!

Just in case you didn't catch that...

She's been called to serve in the  
KOREA BUSAN MISSION
{formerly known, before the year 2000, as Pusan}  

ummm...SAY WHHAAATTT????  yep that is what I said. lol 

Talk about being shocked. STUNNED! is more like it. 

We all were actually. And it took us a few minutes to digest the news. I seriously don't think I've ever been so taken back in my life. My first reaction 
{wanted to be} 
"Ewe!" As in "That can't be right!" haha. 
NEVER throughout this whole process had I really pictured her in Asia. 
{only four people pinned her there. Two older cousins and her two little sisters. wow! } 
Lovely people in Asia, I'm sure, but there has never been an overwhelming attraction or emotional attachment to that part of the world for us, other than celebrating Chinese New Year, haha {but that's China}and uncle Ryan lives in Tokyo {but that's Japan.} 

KOREA?!?! Probably one of the last places on earth I'd want to visit, let alone send my daughter to live for 18 months. Korea makes me think of the TV show M*A*S*H and the Korean war and the creepy North Koreans. Sorry, but there was no warm fuzzies go'in on for me. My bubble was burst. {Not gonna lie.} No jump'in up and down, no squeal'in, no tears of joy. I kept it together for about a half hour, then fell apart and didn't recover for the rest of the night....Just ask the hubs, my sister, and my best friend..haha.  

I'm giving myself a little slack though, when I take into account that I'm just trying to get use to the fact that I'm going to be a missionary mom! With five girls I never thought I'd be experiencing that. Only because NONE of my girls growing up {so far} have expressed a desire to go on a mission. A few inklings with Kyleigh, the summer after her Junior Year and Fall of her Senior Year, but all in all, it's nothing she/we really planned on. 

The whole thing messes with your emotions. Just say'in.    
The beautiful part in all of this is that Kyleigh, although initially shocked about going somewhere she least expected, was totally accepting and fully embraced her call. And she's excited! She's up for the challenge, the language {yikes}, and the different cultural experience. It's going to be an adventure, which is something she wanted. What an awesome opportunity to serve the Lord in such an unique place. Knowing she's okay with it, helps me to be okay with it. And I'm happy for her. Besides, we all know where the call comes from and it's futile to second guess HIM. right? So I'm happy to report that a week later I'm feeling much better about all this. The Stake President thought he had heard she was going to Cambodia. {um....think Cambodia killing fields...} So my little inside joke now, with myself,  is that anywhere is better than Cambodia! bahaha. 
Even Korea.  

THIS IS BUSAN. It's on the southern tip of Korea, by the ocean ;). Second largest city in Korea, very upscale, metropolitan. 

It ain't Europe, but that is okay. Even Kyleigh's boss was commenting that it's probably a good thing she's not going to an European country because she'd have 10 suitors at her door. Not sure about THAT. But even Kyleigh got thinking about how romanticized Europe is in her head. She has a passion for that part of the world. The history {she'd major in European History if she knew she could make money at it}, the culture, the good looking guys with the accents. She'd be caught up in it. and quite possibly a bit distracted from the work. She'd be looking for a cute Irish boy to bring home. 
{not really, but ya know what I mean.} 
She already knows she won't have that issue in Korea. 
"So if it that makes you feel any better about me going to Korea mom"...she said, as she explained all this to me the other day.... 
{hilarious} 
In a strange way it does make me feel better. :) 
The Lord works in mysterious ways I'm telling you. 
No doubt about that. 

My parents have 17 granddaughters and 8 grandsons. Kyleigh happens to be the first granddaughter, {so far} to serve a mission, and the first one to serve in a non-Spanish speaking.

Kyleigh's good friend, Kenzi, who is at Snow College, watched Kyleigh open her call by Skype ;)

Kyleigh's aunt has already gone out and purchased some Korean food items for her. Thankfully, I'm not too worried with Kyleigh and the Korean cuisine. She loves food. She already loves the Korean basics of fish and seafood, rice, noodles, soup, vegetables and meat {not sure about the dog meat and pickled cabbage...yet} but she has a good start and she'll adapt.    

Sidenote: This Aunt, the Mr.'s sister, lived in Korea for a year... way back when she was married to her first husband, who served a mission there.  The Mr.'s brother, Uncle Ryan, has lived in Korea as well, his ex-wife is Korean. The Mr.'s youngest brother's wife's ex husband {got that?} served a mission in Korea too. Kinda some bizarre family ties to Korea, don't you think?

 This pic is from Jan of 2006! in a hotel room in California. Kyleigh is {almost} 10 yrs old. Ryan was living in Korea at the time and met us in Disneyland. He brought these Korean dresses back for the girls. Who in the hay would have ever thought back then that Korea is where Kyleigh would someday serve a mission?!?!  

pic courtesy of Mercedes

Anyhow,  Kyleigh leaves May 13th. Initially they had her report date as April 1st!!! When she filled out her mission papers, she initially put April 1st as her availability date. That's when she was trying to graduate early in March by taking her last few classes in a 8 week crash course. {which would be insanity} She botched that idea and decided to graduate normal time in May. The Stake President made a note to change her availability to May 1st, but somehow it got overlooked. Thus the confusion when she read she was to leave in just 6 weeks. {That would be crazy!}  

I have to admit that Kyleigh in Korea is sounding pretty darn cute. However, this quote by Kate was music to my ears....
Kyleigh: "So Kate, how do you feel about me going to Korea?"
Kate: "Well, I'd rather you go to Disneyland, but whatever."