Stepping Out!

Today was the day! It was a day much anticipated and one that we knew would come...eventually! Since Caleb was in 2nd grade he's been telling us that he was not going to home school through high school. This has been a summer of preparing my heart for a sort-of "letting go." We have been schooling Caleb since he was in kindergarten. That's nine years! That's a lot of hours around the kitchen table. That's a lot of relationship building and growing together and we will never regret a single minute of it! It wasn't always easy. It wasn't even always fun, but there was such worth that came from these years and unimaginable joy and pleasure watching this child of ours learn and grow, and become! He is so smart and funny and has such an honest heart...and now, he gets to share the uniqueness of the creation God made him to be with the world, in a new way....out from under certain elements of our covering. But certainly not out from under the covering of the Father.

So it was Caleb and I this morning...up early, getting dressed, getting breakfast, getting ourselves and our hearts ready. Before we left the house at some ugly hour ;) we gathered together on the edge of the bed, with Dad, and prayed. It was a beautiful moment and I felt the assurance of stepping out into another Path of Promise...this time though, I would gaze from a distance (a short distance) and watch my son step out into his destiny. This is his path and I felt the depth of this eternal moment when he (and his best friend) stepped out of the car, but not before saying in Caleb fashion, "Mom, I feel like my stomach is going to explode!" Laughter ensued! Caleb, always knowing how to make me laugh.

Caleb didn't know that I had stowed away the camera in my school bag. I had to get a picture of the event. I didn't even care if it was just their backs, walking forward, into newness. However, as I went to snap the picture, my boy turns around and gives me the sweetest look of love and a little wave of the hand. Yes, it has been good Caleb. Soooo, soooo good! Paths of Promise.

I drove away with a sigh and a tear. My babes. I could still see that little second grader at the kitchen table looking me in the eye, "I'm going to high school Mom!" Indeed!

I turned on good ol' K-Love and I cried with the DJ as she gave a full-detailed account of dropping her oldest off at kindergarten for the first time this morning. I could completely relate...except my kindergartner is a big boy now!