Hummm...my first blog. I would love to write something so interesting that everyone who reads it would immediately click the follow button, but if I wait till such a fascinating idea comes to my mind I will never start so...here is ramble #1.
I am going on 52 years old and I am happily married with two children. The kids are not really kids anymore. My son is 23 yrs old and my daughter is 20 years old. I do work that I enjoy, I have a few good friends and I believe I am in the process of adding several more to that list. I appreciate the life I have. We are not wealthy, but we have what we need.

All of this does not mean that life does not offer challenges. I am challenged daily. I am grateful when I can meet the challenges and humbled when I cannot.
The challenge that is constant and I feel is most important for me to successfully meet is the challenge of remembering that my job as a parent is to help my children become independent adults.

My mom passed away in 1991. My father had died when I was two years old and while my mom remarried several times SHE was always our rock. Since she died when my oldest child was not yet 5 years old I missed out on much of the wisdom I am sure she could have shared with me. But one of the first things she told me when my kids were born was, "hold them close, but remember they are only on loan to you". She stressed that my job as a mother is to constantly "let go" to let them grow to feel capable and to help them learn to be independent.

We had the kids baptized about a month before my mom died. Stu was already 4 1/2 years old and Liz was about 18 mos old. I remember standing there in church with my husband, my mother, and much of my family. As I watched and participated in the sacrament I felt the real meaning of what my mother had said. As we stood there and acknowledged that our children were "children of God", I realized that they truly do belong to God. I have been honored with the joy of raising and guiding them, but they are God's children.
I felt it then. I feel it now.

My daughter just left to go back to school in Southern California after having been home on break for a week. This is the first summer she will not be living at home as she has found a wonderful (paid!) internship in another city for this summer. I suspect we will not have her living back at home for more than a week or two at a time again. So, I face the challenge of ... letting go... appreciating what a wonderfully independent young woman she has become...and trusting God.
My son has announced his engagement to a lovely girl...yet another challenge of letting go...appreciating that his open heart has allowed him to find a love outside of what was our family. ...trusting God...and being grateful that our family is growing by the addition of his lovely Hayley.
It has been said that God will not give you more than you can handle. I have often mused that by giving me such easy, loving children that God kept it simple for me. Now I see what it is that I have been given to "handle", that is the letting go. I pray that I can do so fully enough, lovingly, and with trust in their readiness for independence. I know that anywhere they go...our love...and God will be with them.