Eighteen Years Is All You Get!

Today I was driving through downtown Annapolis on my way out to church like most Wednesdays. I do the preschool Sunday School set up every week and the easiest way to get to the freeway is through town. I love to go through the historic part of Annapolis and past USNA. Today there was more traffic and people not sure where they were going. What I saw tugged at this mother's heartstrings: a family with a son about 18 years old and little sisters tagging along as mom and dad lead the way. Definitely looked like a family who just arrived to take their son and brother to I-Day tomorrow at USNA: Induction Day for the class of 2015. It's a distinctive look. Five years ago yesterday we took Tim early in the morning. By the evening we got to spend a precious last half hour with him in his new white works and dixie cup. He kept saying, "I don't know what to do. I just want to go home with you guys." Of course, he stayed and we left. This is the last photo we have of him that day.

I had been through leaving Dan, Jill, and Michael so this was nothing new. The day we left Dan at Western Baptist College; then Jill a year later at WBC were extremely sad days. Especially on the day Dan left for college was the first day I REALLY realized you have your children for 18 short years. Of course, Dan and Jill were just an hour away but the reality of life as we knew it was over. The day we left Michael at a pack station in the Sierra Nevadas after he graduated from high school took more strength than I thought I could muster as we drove away. Two years later (or so...I'm not sure) we said good bye as he left for the army. All that should have prepared me for saying good bye to Tim on I-Day. But, it still hurt just the same.

Good news is we get to see them all and life is not over. Just life as we knew it when they were home under our care is over. My advice to parents of young children? You get 18 years. Cherish those years! Make the moments count. The days go by slowly but the years fly by.

Sigh...it just helps to write it down. My heart goes out to all the moms and dads and families who will say good bye tomorrow. They'll make it. Just like we made it.