Reluctantly Letting Go

Today was the kick-off to our ABC Countdown to summer--It was "Art day".  Yippee!?!?   With only 25 days till summer, I'm struck with the fact that it's time to let our kindergarten friends go on to first grade and I'm once again reluctant to do so.  As teachers, every year we pour so much of ourselves into our sweet friends and then we send them off to the next grade, as if passing a baton.  We trust that another teacher will pick up where we left off and that he or she will shower our precious students with loving care.  We are only given a short window of opportunity in the lives of our students.  Of course, the thought of summer days excites us, but the annual tradition of letting go tugs at our hearts. 

Tomorrow morning my oldest will take her drivers test to become officially licensed.  We are confident about her ability, after much practice, but it really gets to me that she will be her driving herself to school right after the test.  I don't know how other parents experienced this first step of freedom for their teenage children, but once again, I'm hesitant to let go.  How can my baby girl drive a machine of metal at 40+++  miles an hour with no carseat and no adult supervision?!

As a kindergarten teacher, I continually encourage my students to do new things on their own.  At the beginning of the year, there are NO expectations..... Parents help with all sorts of things: unpacking/carrying backpacks, putting on/zipping up jackets, tying shoes and opening/closing lunch items.  By the end of the year, some independence is expected.  As a parent, I relate with the challenge of letting our little ones become more independent and how easy it is to do everything for them.  Even this evening, one of my daughters tried to run the vacuum cleaner under the kitchen table and she was not familiar with how to use the appliance.  Obviously, I've been doing it or paying someone to do it for too long.  This was a wake-up call. 

As we anticipate summer days, our mailbox is filled with graduation announcements.  Even today, we received mail from two dear families who shared this important event in the lives of their sons.  In our home we place graduation photos alongside birth announcements.  If you were to visit, you would know that we prominently display significant life announcements (weddings, births, graduations) on the tile wall behind our kitchen phone.   This evening it hit me that the handsome 18 year old son of my dear friend (in one announcement) is just like the newborn baby in the birth announcement right beside.  For those of us entering the "letting go" season of life, it was just yesterday that we welcomed our newborn babies to this world and when we found it easier to tie the shoes ourselves than to teach our kindergarten children how to tie shoes.  As a mother who is forced to encourage independence in my quickly growing daughters, I need to pray for wisdom from the Lord and abiding trust in him, knowing that he cares for them abundantly more than I ever could and that he watches over their coming and going, even in quickly moving vehicles.