The Baby is Back Home!

Well, my youngest child is officially back home this weekend. To say I wasn’t ready would be an understatement. I wanted to hang some new pictures in her room, clean out her closet and move some things around in the garage to accommodate her mountainous college junk but alas I never actually got to it!

Matter of fact I was still slightly jet-lagged from a recent business trip to Florida last week and I decided to get up early and then lay back down. My husband said its ok, it’s Friday. Give your body a rest. Well, why couldn’t he have said; it’s the Friday the baby comes home (yes we call our daughter baby!), and you have nothing done. You can’t rest today. That would have been more helpful, don’t you think!

Well needless to say I slept until 10 AM and when I went to make my coffee my husband informed me that our daughter would be home oh in about an hour and a half! What, you mean like today, this afternoon? Right now, an hour and a half?

Ah yea…

Next thing I knew she was banging on my bedroom door, “Mom I’m home. I was just trying to find some matching socks.”

Anyway, she was so excited to be home and I was so excited that she was excited.

Kids and college, it’s a rite of passage for all of us and it’s my third time around this bend. But honestly, it’s been a wonderful season of seeing her step out independently and find her way outside of her dad and me. She is our last kid at home and these days go by so fast.

As she backed her car into the garage, and we pulled out an endless barrage of stuffed animals and makeup baskets I was overwhelmed to finally be at this moment of her life. There she was, my sweet little girl all grown up, driving her car and coming home from college for the summer.

I just wanted to take a mental picture and store it in my heart. I thought how grateful I was to God and how unbelievably proud I was of her.

Then I exhaled and grabbed another basket.