Farewell Dinner

Marcel didn't want a big goodbye party and he definitely didn't want anyone to make a fuss over him.  Instead he would have preferred to quietly slip away.  Of course we couldn't actually let him do that.  Even if he didn't need to officially mark the end of his year with a party of sorts, I needed that type of closure. So we did something we rarely do as a household of seven and that is go out to dinner.  Chris' mom, brother and sister-in-law were able to join us too, which was special since they've been an integral part of Marcel's extended host family.

While we waited for our dinner to arrive, we surprised Marcel with a video a friend's son made for him.  We all watched together in disbelief as Marcel's year flashed before our eyes.  Chris for how much Marcel did in just one year, me for how we really were going to have to say goodbye to this guy who's been part of our family for the last year and, and Marcel for how quickly a year could go by.

Marcel even had a surprise for us.  He had made a scrapbook of pictures of his year with the kids.  In a nod to having taught me how to use Instagram, many of the captions were hashtags. My favorite was a recount of Marcel's first conversation with Chris during a Skype interview. I had conducted all the e-mail correspondence, set up Skype interviews and vetted candidates, and when I had finally found our au pair, I told Chris he couldn't just trust my judgement and needed to at least Skype with the guy I was asking to come live with us for a year and take care of our children.  Even when I got Chris in front of the computer to talk to Marcel, he had exactly one question. I had forgotten about this brief exchange until I turned to the page in Marcel's scrapbook with pictures from the winter.

Chris: Do you care about a cold winter?

Marcel:  Of course not!  We also have a cold winter. #Ihadnoidea

The funny memories didn't end there.  Chris had given me the book Reasons My Kid is Crying for Christmas and while I got a kick out of it, the book had clearly resonated with Marcel.  Three whole pages of the scrapbook were dedicated to reasons my kids were crying! Although Marcel had consulted the moms at the playground to make sure I would think something like this was funny, he had nothing to worry about, because I laughed so hard I had tears streaming down my face.

Marcel printed the text in the scrapbook in both German and English. He signed the last page with, Es ist kein tschuess fuer immer, es ist ein bis bald!  It's not a goodbye, it's a see you soon!