Growing Up
As some of you have heard, our oldest daughter, Brittany, has been approved into a Student Exchange program. She will be going to Costa Rica for a year (actually, a full school year, which is really ten months). She received the approval just before church began on Thursday night. It really took me for a loop. I recovered, but am still going through a lot of emotions over the idea.
I know what you’re thinking. Did you not work out the emotions during the application stage? No. I didn’t. You see, I always had an excuse. First, it was the cost. We certainly didn’t have the finances to pay for her to go to another country for an entire school year. So, Brit discovered that there was a scholarship fund. She applied. So then, I figured that there would be so many people who apply for the scholarship program that she wouldn’t be accepted. She was. And that’s where we are now at.
We figured she wouldn’t be leaving until the end of August. You know, school starts in September, and so that would give us the summer with her. Well, today we find out that might not be the case either. It now looks like she will be leaving the middle of July. JULY! My heart started racing again at the thought of her leaving so soon.
Oh, did I mention that she is only 15. You know, my baby girl? My little kid. My Bert. Gone for a year!!! To another country!!!
And yet, what an opportunity for her. When I put aside my personal feelings – my daddy feelings - and just think about the opportunity, I get very excited for her. This will change her life. She will experience things that I certainly never had the chance to experience. And who knows, what the Lord will do in her heart during this year.
Releasing our kids to experience life is never easy. As a pastor, I speak often about trusting God and this is one of those times when I am required to walk the talk. Do I trust God with my baby girl? I believe I do.
I plan to write about the experience of getting ready for her to leave on this blog (from time to time). Perhaps it might help others who are coming close to the stage of letting their children begin to fly.