Graduations, Girlfriends and Those Dreaded Life Changes

 I believe I have mentioned before that there are 4 girls from school that I have been best friends with well, forever. One since I was 4, one since I was 6 and two since I was 12. I don't believe we ever truly lost touch of each other during our "childrearing years" as my mom would say, but we were busy with our lives and have gotten a chance to be much closer in the last few years. It dawned on me this morning that out of the 5 of us, 4 of us have some pretty life-changing things going on--graduations. And, lo and behold, I am the one whose life is calm, which makes me laugh because at my house, life is still anything but calm.

 Dani and Valerie have their youngest, both boys, graduating from High School, and  heading on to college. Tina's only daughter graduated from Jr. College and is preparing to go on to Southern IL University, and Tammy, being the ever-present overachiever of the bunch had one graduate from college AND one graduating from High School. This effectively means this is the last year any of us have kids graduating from High School. And for all of them,  it means empty nesting is about 3 months away. Definitely changes in store. I am hoping this means it might be a little easier for us to get together but I think we all 5 know, just because our roles in their lives are changing, doesn't mean they won't still need us.

There are numerous facebook posts, blogposts and articles out there from mothers to their children concerning how proud they are of them as they take their next step.

I am addressing the following as an open letter to my four best friends.

I have to keep remembering back to our own senior year of high school and our own graduation. I think we spent most of our high school years being told we were a class of underachievers. Yet, I look at the 5 of us, we have 5 pretty amazing families, 8 pretty amazing kids between us and I think we have to say, we've done well.

Of course, in order to be true to my service to God, this has to be in the form of a devotional. Some words from the Word to carry with you as you start this next journey. By the way, I don't really know how on earth I ended up with the oldest child,  I am not unhappy about the fact that menopause didn't hit until after Robert was out of school. I have always been one of the more emotional ones of my group and Robert did enough eye-rolling at my tears then, I can't imagine what it would have been like to go through THAT roller coaster in the mix. Sorry girls......


So, the Bible tells us all sorts of things about raising our kids, and the world tries to tell us that once they get to college they just don't need us as much. I keep heading back to one particular chapter in the Bible though, this was brought to my attention on Mother's Day as our pastor used it for part of his sermon.

In John 19:26-27, the day of Christ's crucifixion, as  Christ hung on the cross, he looked to Peter and basically told him, "take care of my mom", and he told his mother, "treat him like your son". Jesus was 33 and I think it is clear, He was still close to His mother.

Our kids still need us, I think we are all finding out now as we approach 50 that we need our moms as much or more today than ever. We also know our time with them is precious and gets smaller everyday. Valerie has already lost her mom and I think about that so much as I take my mom to the doctor. It is the bright side of her having so many doctor's appointments, I get to spend time with her.

The next thing I want to point out to my friends is that we did well. We really do have amazing kids, I don't think there is a bad one in the bunch. They all have dreams and goals and I love hearing about what they are accomplishing. I hear the verse rattle around in my head to "train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it."(Proverbs 22:6). We did a really good job, you know? Sure there were battles, Robert and I had our fair share, a strong willed child and a strong willed mom are sure to butt heads. Thing is, I am so proud of him because when I was his age, I truly had no clue where I would land. He, as well as every one of the other 7 of our kids have plans, and dreams and they aren't sitting at home waiting for it to be handed to them, they are out making it happen! There may be a lot of entitled young people out there but I am extremely happy to say, there is not a one of them among our kids. We did well, and God was involved with every one of them. He did REALLY well!

So, as the High School graduations get ready to happen and the college ones already have, I am sending out a special congratulations to my best friends' kids, but even a bigger one to my best friends. I am proud of you, so very proud of all of you, proud to see the moms you are and even prouder to call you my best friends. Enjoy the tears of celebration and cherish the memories that are surfacing in spades and be ready for that next chapter. As grand as raising Robert was, having him come home each evening excited about his job, that he worked hard to get and dreamed about having forever, is just as spectacular. I relish the fact that I helped make that happen, from the day he was born, through praying him through school and college and praying for him at work everyday. It has been amazing.

Love you guys, looking forward to seeing you all soon.

This is also to all the amazing moms (and dads for that matter), no matter what you do for a living, I don't think anything changes the world in quite the same way as how you raise your next generation.  Congratulations!

I leave you with one of my favorite "mom songs" even though it is sung by a dad.

Here is Mark Harris' Find Your Wings