Independance Day

This week, my husband and I will be taking our youngest daughter and her boyfriend to the airport to see them off on a 18 day trip around Europe.  If you asked me 28 years ago when I was expecting my first child if I ever thought I would let one of my children travel to Europe at 17 years old with her boyfriend....my answer would have been a resounding "Heck NO!"

After going through all the High School Years with my five children, I have seen and learned a lot!  I have learned that children don't always tell the truth...(Surprise?!...Not!), that children make mistakes,and many more things, but mostly,  that children need to live and learn.  I have done what all the good parenting books say to do (even though I have never even read a parenting book).  I have "Talked" to my children.  There has been no subject, that I have ever not talked about with my children, and even with their friends.  We've talked about drugs and alcohol, sex, STD's, responsibility, moral issues, religion, and you name it we've talked about it.  My kitchen table has seen probably every subject the books tell you to talk to your children about.

What I learned from talking to my children over the years, is that as parents we lay the foundation....we teach them right from wrong, and as my Uncle Bobby used to say (by the way he was Chief of Police in our City for many years) , "You raise them until about Junior High, and then you just PRAY"  He was right.  We are given our children to us on loan from God, and then one day, you turn around and they are grown, and they are independent thinkers.  If we have done our job right, and the foundation is clear, then hopefully they will make it through their teen years safe and sound.  That doesn't mean they won't make mistakes and do things that we may not approve of, but I believe that if they at least have a solid foundation, then they will turn out just fine. 

That is why I am okay with my youngest daughter heading off to Europe at 17.  She has seen her 4 siblings before her, make mistakes, and falter through the years, but now they are all adults, and she sees that they are all still firmly planted on  solid foundations, and they are all doing well.  She too, has faulted from time to time, but in my heart I know her foundation is strong, and that Europe and College in the fall, are just the beginning of her journey into adulthood.  I trust her, I love her, and so this year on July 5, a day after the 4th of July our Independence Day.....I will see her off at the airport for a trip of a lifetime, and know that this trip is in a way, Jane's own personal Independence Day....one of of many more to come.