Eye-opener

College girl is in Austria. We took her to the airport yesterday morning, in a snowstorm. I watched her go through security with her 2 friends and traveling companions and turn and wave at us before disappearing around the corner on the way to their gate. Her face was pale and she was showing signs of stress. For some reason, I was enveloped by a heavy sadness. I was reminded--with great clarity--that things are never going to be the same again. She worked full time over Christmas vacation so we didn't see her a lot, and now she's gone. This will be the pattern for the next couple of years. Work, School, work, school. The days when all of my children will be under my roof are forever changed. I've known this, I've expected this, we have already experienced this to a degree, yet, watching her walk down that hallway to the plane that would take her so far away...I saw this new stage of our lives with her with startling clarity...and my heart broke, just a little.

I know she needs to grow up and move on and I want that for her. I miss her when she is at college, but I take comfort in the maturity, independence and wisdom she manifests when she comes home. She has developed into a truly, lovely young woman. I am so proud of her. I love her, of course, but I also really like her...the intelligent, dynamic, faith-filled young lady she has become. What a gift! Which, perhaps, makes these partings that much harder.

It is bittersweet, indeed.