I am watching God move.  At church today there was a sweet spirit of worship that flowed.  I was ushered into the Holy place through the music today.  What bliss it is! 

I am also fresh from a trip to see colleges with Aaron. And Hannah just returned from a Passion worship conference in Atlanta .  To see my kids seeking God about their own future is humbling.  I am amazed at their thought processes and how they hear God.  I have prayed for years that they would have their own relationship with him.  And that he would lead and guide them to his purpose for their lives. 

Now I am watching them do it.  For some reason I always thought I would be the one to carry them.  I guess it is a mom thing.  But here they are stepping away from my arms and into his.  Sad?  Yes.  Hannah came to my office today with her cap and gown on.  My tears flowed.  We went and bought her prom dress today, a fun mother-daughter shopping afternoon.  I am grabbing the minutes with her as they try to escape.  Exciting?  Yes.  Discussion of possible careers and colleges is like the beginning of a life adventure.  Each step is a hidden piece of the puzzle that is living with purpose and abandon.  Living fully.  It is a great season of their lives and mine to begin to release the chicks from the nest.  A new season, that for me, will be gradual…thank God.  My friends with onlys are wrestling harder than I at this moment.  Yet we all know that God is bigger than our fears and our empty houses.  He is good.  There is a sweetness in these days; a holy happiness in the midst of the grief.  It is an unusual place to be sure; a place that leads us to our knees once again.  We have grown comfortable in our prayers for them since the babies came to us.  We know the feeling of releasing them at the Lords feet to be sure, but now we are releasing them out the door; a whole new sense of trusting God with their very lives.  This new place is one I have not looked forward to, but now is upon me…like it or not.  Gracefully I will embrace the pain of it and allow the Lord to do his work.  Gracefully, I will relinquish them to his care with my prayers and tears.  I will always be their mom and for that I am forever grateful!