high school is over

For our 18 year old daughter, high school is over. Today was her last day to go to class at her alma mater... The emotions going through our household are varied and deep.

Her mom can't believe we have a high school graduate (actually, graduation is next Friday night), and I am having a hard time believing that we have, in our hallway, one 13-picture frame which is completed... two more have 4 and 9 pictures filled in respectively.

For her part, Caitlin's emotions are very mixed. We have a big summer ahead of us and the most exciting time of her life seems to be just ahead of her as she goes to college... she earned a basketball scholarship, and is very happy to be blessed with the opportunity to continue her basketball career...

But she is also kinda blue... all she has known is going to her school with her friends for the last dozen years. And now that's over... and the settling in of that realization is fixing a sort of melancholy over her.

I am trying to be present and enjoy the experience... and to encourage my girls to live in the moment and absorb it all...

But it's hard. Because as excited as I am about this next phase (for her and for us), I do not look forward to the day when we drop her off at college and drive away...

and that's probably what is gnawing at my wife and daughters... I understand perfectly!

blessings...