Growth

We just got back from being the pack mules for my daughter. She just completed her second year of college.  That seems like such a simple sentence... and probably is for most people. But in our world it should be written like this:  RHIA JUST COMPLETED HER SECOND YEAR OF COLLEGE!!!!!!!!!  Those of you that have been following my blog for a length of time know how difficult this process was and how astonishing it is that she is even THERE, let alone THRIVING... and thriving she is.  When we got there this time, in the place of a sobbing, anxious little girl there was a beautiful, self assured woman who showed us around her apartment, took us to great coffee shops and restaurants and had all kinds of friends that were happy to see her where ever we went.  What a joy!

At one point, sitting and listening to her telling me about some scientific fact or another, I was stunned to realize that she grew up.  Like, really. grew. up.  She is an environmental science major, she is on the trip of a lifetime right now, that's why we had to go bring her supplies and pack up her apartment and bring her stuff home. Again, that should be written like this:  RHIA IS ON THE TRIP OF A LIFETIME SEEING 25 NATIONAL PARKS!!!!  That's kinda unreal, don't you think?  My little girl, who suffers tremendously from homesickness is currently on a bus traveling across the United States visiting all the places we have only dreamed of...

Starting at Saguaro, way down at the bottom in New Mexico/Arizona and working up to the Grand Canyon and beyond...  Yosemite, Death Valley, Redwoods, Crater Lake, Mt. St. Helens, San Juan Islands, Yellowstone, Devils Tower, Badlands... you name it, she's gonna see it.  I can't even wrap my mind around this.  I can't imagine what this is like.  And... I can't imagine who she will be when she gets home.

Her father and I have never been to any of these places.  No one in my family has ever been to any of these places.  In fact, no one in my family ever graduated HIGH SCHOOL... let alone COLLEGE.  I cannot begin to tell you how emotional it makes me feel to think that somehow, someway,  Barry & I were able to .... I don't even know what the word is... pull ourselves from where we came from and give our kids a better chance.  We thank God everyday for the wonderful friends and mentors that helped us, we are so blessed.

While we were there being pack mules, my beautiful daughter had to sing in her choir for the Montreat Graduating Class of 2010.  From the minute they started the procession with a man playing the bagpipes as their leader... to the first note of her small, AMAZING, choir, her father and I were teary.  When she came out, we shared with her, laughing, how weepy we were.  She starts cracking up, "geez, you don't even know anyone there graduating!!! What the heck are you gonna do when it's me?"

What indeed.  I feel an 'ugly cry' coming on.... You know, the one where your face scrunches all up and you blubber?  Yeah, that'll be her Dad & I... in the front row.