growing up

Emily has her orientation this week at Washington State University.   A blessed mom, I get to partially participate this time!   She asked me to come with her for the drive, so I drove out to Pullman this morning.  After getting her checked in and fed, I dropped her back off for 2 days on campus.  ( I get to spend 2 days enjoying peace and quiet in a hotel!!  How wonderful is that??) She has a writing assessment today, a math placement test tomorrow morning, and several sessions about her major (architecture) and advising/class registration time.  She’ll have fun!  She was a bit nervous, and one of the things bugging her was that she would have a roommate she’s never met before.  THAT is not Emily’s kind of thing at all!  We went to her room earlier today and saw that her roommate might be a foreign student.  When I left her this afternoon, Dongbo hadn’t shown up yet.  Just before dinner Emily texted me and let me know that Dongbo was here from China! As a matter of fact, she flew in today to attend orientation and advising.  I am praying that Em has fun—she can at least share a little with her roommate since she’s been to China and has two brothers who are Chinese.  Maybe that will help break the ice for my quiet reserved girl.

On the drive over, Emily put a CD in, then promptly fell asleep.  Typical!  :)  But I enjoyed listening to it—she put in the sound track from Mamma Mia (the ABBA movie).  It’s been fun to listen and remember my own growing up years and most of the songs…  Anyway, as I have listened today, I keep coming back to one song that made both Emily and me cry this afternoon.  It’s called Slipping Through my Fingers, and the words go like this:

Schoolbag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning    

Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile

I watch her go with a surge of that well known sadness

And I have to sit down for a while

The feeling that I’m losing her forever

And without really entering her world

I’m glad whenever I can share her laughter

That funny little girl

Slipping through my fingers all the time

I try to capture every minute

The feeling in it

Slipping through my fingers all the time

Do I really see what’s in her mind

Each time I think I’m close to knowing

She keeps on growing

Slipping through my fingers all the time

 

Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture

And save it from the funny tricks of time

Slipping through my fingers…

 

That’s my funny little girl, almost all grown up already.  The time is definitely slipping through my fingers…