Homecoming, part II

The boys are going back to Connecticut tomorrow.  I will miss them.  It's funny how the relationship between parent and child changes. 

I let Jeremy drive home from my mom's today.  He did a great job!  I have to ask myself, "When did this happen?" 

We had a very mature conversation.  He is growing up.

This morning, when I woke up and went into the living room, Jeremy was asleep on the couch.  I very poignantly remember a time, it seems like not too long ago, when he would crawl into my bed and lay right next to me.  As I arose, in the early morning (I've always been a morning person), he would get up with me and wait for me to get ready.  Then we would go downstairs and sit the chair in the living room.  He would curl up next to me as I did my devotions.  My prayers for him then are not much different that they are today.  Where does the time go?

I also remember tucking Alex in.  Every night, I would lay with him and we would pray and debrief our day in his "doggie-nation" (dalmatian, to the adult world) bed.  Just as I thought he was asleep, he would say, "Just one more minute, daddy."  (Sigh as I wipe away the tears.)  Now I go to bed long before he does!

Tomorrow morning, Jenn will see them off at the airport to go back to their lives in Connecticut; lives, that we are not a daily part of.  And, we will continue with our lives in Oklahoma; lives that they are not apart of.  Perhaps this is the way it is suppose to be.  It must be, because it is the way it is.  I don't have to like it.  It is, however, the way it is. 

I must be honest.  I will miss them, but I'm proud of what they are becoming-yet, in my absence. 

Don't be dismayed by good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again and meeting again after moments or a lifetime is certain for those who are friends.~ Richard Bach

Farewell, my sons...