Letting Go

Today the family took Rebecca to her fist week long band camp an hour away from home. One of the hardest things a parent has to learn is let go of their children....little by little. Today we dropped her off at band camp, tomorrow, it will be college..then marriage, children and on and on. I never knew how hard it would be to be dropping off my first-born to something as small as BAND CAMP, but as I nervously looked around the campus, her dark dorm room, and at the other campers; it hit me that I had to let her GO. No one ever told me how hard it would be to do that! You think as a mother of small children that the kids will be around forever, but time does move along quickly and there you are dropping your 13 year-old daughter off in her dorm room with a stranger as her roommate! Geez!! To be honest, I am not one of those sentimental moms crying at the bus-stop when their kid goes to kindergarten. In fact, I'm usually relieved that I have one less child to worry about during the school day! But I believe I WILL be a mom that cries for months when they go off to college.

After Chris and I dropped Rebecca off, we got into the car with the boys and drove silently out of the parking garage. Chris said, "Oh, I am going to miss Rebecca when she goes to college. She is my life! How will we ever survive?" There was more silence in the car. He continued on, " You and I will be bawling when that time comes. We only have four more years with her! I should quit my job and spent it all with her!" I sat there with tears in my eyes relieved that he was feeling the same kinds of emotions as i was.

I gave Rebecca my cell phone while she is at camp and I asked her to call me at the end of the night to tell me that she is OK.

Guess what?

She didn't.

It's hard to let go.