My Baby is Leaving - Raising Children is a Process of Letting Go

So at 3:45 am, last Tuesday we packed our little man up to take him to Baltimore on his way to Texas, and ultimately for almost a month in Costa Rica.

Everyone has asked me if I cried at the airport... I didn't.

I have heard it said that raising a child is a continual process of letting go. It starts the first time they want to stay at Grandma's for the night, eventually it is a friends house, then they forget their lunch and when you take it to their class, they kind of shoo you out.

Oh how far we have come from the day in kindergarten when Cody held my hand so tight, and was nervous to talk to the other kids, then me letting go, and walking away. I stood there looking through the window for thirty minutes to see how he adjusted. He did just fine, and he came home that day with three new friends, Cody G. Joe and Shayla.

When he was about three months old we dedicated him to the Lord. We had a ceremony where we committed to do our best as parents to bring him up the way he should be. Tiny little guy screaming in the church wanting to be fed, and praying over him, and then the pastor praying over us.

Fast forward thirteen years (and boy did it go fast!), his thrirteenth birthday, we decided to give him a 'coming of age' ceremony. Four very influential men in Cody's life came together, (his dad, his uncle and two of his dads closest friends) and each gave their part on what it means to be a man. He got a big ole sword with the family motto engraved on it, and then they prayed for him. I was at home, being a girl kept me from attending... Not too long after that, he decided to go on this mission trip.

So of course here we are at another stage of letting go. I have no brothers, and so this trip into adolescent male-hood is all new to me. Part of me wants to keep him so close and protect him from every bad thing, and another part of me sees the man he is becoming, and I want him to be able to face the world head on.