Catching up.....The Big Send off to College .....

So ....I didn't even want to write about this..... It was  a happy, exciting, wonderful and very sad day...

This was a day I knew would come....

It was a day every mother begins to dread from the minute  you hold that new baby in your arms--you know it is coming, way back in the back of your mind.  You know it's there every time you tuck him in, every time he starts another school year,   each time you celebrate his birthday,  each time you go on vacation....there is a little thought in the back of your mind  reminding you  that one day your child child will fly.......out of your nest and begin a life of their own.

We don't own our children.  We only borrow them for a while and teach and love them the best way we know how, but ultimately they are responsible for their lives.  And as they go, you just hope they remember all you tried to teach them and hope with all your heart that Heavenly Father will make up for all you didn't teach them....

And you hope that they know who they are and that their Heavenly Father and Savior love them and that they are never alone.  So many things... on this day if Eric had asked for the moon I would have tried getting it for him.    I am sure every mom feels so many emotions as she sends off her oldest to college.  

And so after 18 years of knowing just about everything they do from what they ate for breakfast to how math class went that day to who they are hanging out with....they go and you have no idea whether or not they are starving to death, brushing their teeth, hanging out with good people....nothing!  Poof!  Gone!

And I text this boy and he just texts back, "don't worry Mom, I am fine!"  And you suddenly feel like you really shouldn't ask too many questions...and let them get their feet on the ground and begin a life of their own on their own.  And it is exciting in many ways and so sad in other ways.


Here are some pictures taken the night before Eric left for college.....

The night before Eric left, we celebrated his birthday!

And he finally got what he has been asking for for the past 3 years...a laptop!!!  

Since, he left, I am happy to say that he seems to be doing just great!   He is rooming with a cousin and has a couple of other cousins close by...and seems to have a fun social life.  He reports that he has all A's, well, one A-.  We will keep our fingers crossed for him that his final grades are so good.    He is getting along well with all of his roommates except one ...and has learned to "just give him his space," and everything goes ok.  He seems to be making new friends....  !  He made Men's Chorus!  This is his favorite class.  He also just auditioned for a show choir with his cousins and they all made it!  Yippee!  BYUI is such a good place to be......so uplifting, testimony building....I hope everything continues to go well...  We are happy for him!