Pride and joy

A friend of mine just did this and gave me a great idea....
Katherine left for New York City on Friday. I cried on the way home from the airport. This year is giving me "baby steps" to letting her go in just a few short years. I can already see signs of the "I am making my own life now."She has always been fiercely independent. But her beautiful blond curls and constant laughs and smiles, made it almost impossible to ever be horribly mad at her.
As she grew she held fast to that independence, but also became noticibly shy. Not painfully so, but just preferring her own company of family and books to strangers. I've noticed in the past year her willingness to socialize with others, make new friends, and enjoy being around other kids around her own age has dramatically improved. She went from going to homeschool functions and sitting in a corner and reading, to actually going into a room of other teens, feeling at ease and interacting with them...even when she really didn't know any of them! Her confidence in herself has helped her to blossom beautifully in the past six months!
Yesterday, I took her to school at 8 in time for luggage drop off and final instructions. I started to walk into school with her when she saw a fellow classmate who was also going on the trip. She yelled out to her and started running up to her to talk. I caught up and asked if she wanted me to stay or go home and come back later to take her to the airport...she said, "whatever you want mom, but you can go home." I watched her walk into school chatting away and thought to myself, "step 1."
"Step 2" came when I took her to the airport and she walked off with another classmate into the airport terminal to wait on the school bus...without me. I expressed some concern about leaving her there alone and another nice, quiet and quite shy boy that I remembered from last year's trip to Orlando, came up and said, "its okay Mrs. Harper, I'll wait with her." Katherine turned and walked off with him. I ducked into the van to grab my camera for a picture and she was almost out of sight...
I cried all the way home from the airport. I thought, two more years and she will out of the nest. She is so looking forward to summer youth retreats (this year without me as a chaperone), college and all the experiences and challenges that go with that.

I am proud that she is turning out to be such a level headed, loving, christian young woman. That was my goal when they first placed her in my arms and though I once doubted she'd live past the age of three (LOL!). Now at 15 1/2 I am glad that she is in my life!!!