graduation

Finally! I have a post. And, I have to tell you, 22 years ago when I graduated from Dover, Ohio population 12,000 we had commencement at 2 pm on the football field .... rain or shine. Well, gone are the days of yesteryear and let me prepare all of you for what is about to come in your near future when your oldest child graduates-> it is a 3 week long graduation! There's graduation festivities with your church, there's festivities for every organization that your child was involved with (chorus, drama, football, basketball - EVERYTHING!) There's a scholarship commencement during the school day where all scholarships are announced and colleges declared. And, then this is a new one for me; Baccalaureate commencement. And, finally graduation! It's exhausting.

So, not only are the festivities exhausting, although worth it for the graduate who has worked their tail off for 4 years, but it's emotionally exhausting. Each ceremony is a reminder that your child has reached their first huge milestone in life and in most cases will be moving out from under your rooftop in 3-4 months. The videos they play at all the ceremonies rip your heart out because you can see how fast time has moved. Gone is the little girl in baby fine pigtails and pink tutu. Now, I am looking at a beautiful Christian woman who is going to college 9 hours away. I'm going to miss that phone call when she would ask if she could come over for dinner or could she just pop in; even if her Dad wasn't home. Yep, I'm the stepmom and sometimes I wish I had another name because stepmom always conjures up such negative feelings. Hallie & I have a sweet relationship and I know she's not leaving just growing up, but sometimes you just long to go back in time. I held a friend's 1 year old baby and he reminds me so much of my own son and I'm proud of the man Christian is becoming, but I'd like to go back one more time and rock him to sleep in my arms and carry him to bed; at 165 lbs. I can't do that anymore!

So, don't rush this time and look forward to the future when they start kindergarten and think that you'll get to do all the things you don't have time for. Because the time is going to come when you're picking out colleges and watching your baby receive their diploma. And, those tears are going to come...