Picked up daughter safe and sound. (Two others driving home now, son in SA isn't making it home).
Daughter's in what we thought would be her final year of studies, but her supervisor wants her to stay another year. Sigh.......
She's already been hired by a University here in the States, and they've given her an extension, so she won't start until the fall of 2008.
(btw, if you Google her name, you can come up with all her academic 'stuff'. Pretty impressive. :)
Because she will be staying longer, younger daughter will be doing a study abroad program in Africa, and Eric is going back to Iraq, we will have four kids on four different continents........and us on yet another.
The wings are a bit too strong for this Mommy.....
With each stage of my son's adult development I have tried to remind myself of what I was like and what I felt at his age and it has helped me to adjust to his independence. Of course a loving Christian parent never stops praying for the offspring, or wanting news of the child's comings, goings, and doings, but turning that telescope around gives me power to release him to God and his own calling with a joy I wouldn't and couldn't have otherwise. I experienced the need to let go of him during his youth, due to my own health being so bad that he had to stay with friends, and then later, with relatives for a while. That was hard but perhaps it helped me later. I hope this might help a little as you contemplate the ever-widening circles in which your children fly. Also, knowing that your children are successful and happy, and wouldn't be if you had made them fearful to try their wings, can be extremely comforting.