Driving Into A New Season
It is amazing how one day, one small milestone success can make such a big difference, and just like that (insert sound of snapping of fingers here) your life changes.
Amy passed her behind the wheel test. Her laminated driver’s license will be arriving in the mail soon. She is now able to drive herself to school, work and other places that I used to drive her. I should be ecstatic. No more calls at midnight to tell me the movie is out, or that she is ready to be picked up from work. No more driving her to piano and waiting outside in the car while she has her lesson which, when the window was open, I could faintly hear. This will be a huge change in my time and schedule, and I should be happy. I am. Really.
But, with this new freedom comes loss. Calling shotgun used to be an every morning ordeal as her and Jack, who is just a few years behind her in age, hurried out the door. Asking how her day was, as she plopped her backpack into the trunk and settled into the 
passenger seat, was a time of connection: not just a ritual of hearing but really listening. Amy would tell me about her homework assignments, how things were going with friends and the grade she got on her last math or English test.
It seemed like yesterday I worried about my cherub faced ballerina swallowing a penny or a stray Lego, now, I anxiously wait for the call that her and Jack made the short drive to school, unscathed, in the old Camry.
It doesn’t matter how many times I have already gone through “Mom Transition”, the reality for me is that soon the last of my kiddos will leave the nest. After almost 29 years, the end of my child raising days are quickly coming to an end.
Days like today make busy toddler years seem like a piece of cake.
Corrie tenBoom talked about holding things loosely because it hurts when God has to pry our fingers off of what we are clutching onto. This includes our children.
This morning, the car left with Amy behind the wheel and me standing in the doorway, reminding her to call when she got to school. I also had to reminded myself that I do not own my kids, I am just the lucky steward who loves being their mom.
Note to self: I thought writing “Empty Nest: Strategies To Help Your Kids Take Flight” would help others, but I think I will make
myself a cup of coffee and read it again for myself. And I will probably need a box of Kleenex…maybe I should plan for at least two cups. Big ones.
Oh Marci—so perfectly expressed. My experience was with boys, who don’t chat as much–but I loved being a part of their lives by chauffeuring them. There was a comfort in knowing when and where I left them and that I would see them there again. Somehow, watching them walk out the door and drive away made me feel “left out”. At the same time, it was a way of preparing for the final drive down the driveway…to their own apartments. It was a slower type of “prying away”.
Thanks for the memories. Now that they are 34 and 38, I have stopped asking them to call each time they get to their destination…LOL. Well, unless they are driving home late from our home. They still know to text me when they arrive. Funny…now they ask me to do the same.
I remember how the first few times felt, seeing our kids drive down the driveway, but when our first two left the nest we still had a 1st grader. My day to day life was still busy, just different busy. I was always a mom who wrote and worked around the kids schedules…now, my life is beginning to veer into unchartered territory. John and I welcomed Nathan into the world just 3 weeks before our first anniversary. Basically, I have been a full steam ahead mom for 3 decades. I have been preparing for this season and even wrote about it, but I want an extension! Love that I have friends who have been there and can LOL about it!
Such a precious post. It has been seven years since my youngest received his license. But, oh how I remember all the feelings you describe. The transitions continue even once they’re grown and begin to have families of their own. God bless you as your youngest spread their wings. <3
Oh how I relate to this post! I still have a long time before the empty nest comes, but as each little bird takes wing, a piece of my heart flies away with them. Beautiful post, Marci.
My kids are near, at, and beyond the half-century mark in age, and I still miss my little guys.