First Days

Well, it has happened. I'm officially the parent of a school age daughter. Emilia dressed in her new sandals, the dress her mom picked out for her in Portugal, and the necklace they had negotiated wearing marched through the front door of the school at 8:45 on Tuesday morning. I have to admit to having shed more than a few tears as I drove around the neighborhood waiting for her mom come back out from the school.

My tears are the same ones that parents have been crying for all sorts of happy, proud, and, yes, kind of sad moments. While I don't remember my parents' tears on my first day of kindergarten, I do remember them on other days...orientation at ONU, dropping me off at school each year, my wedding, after helping us pack up and move to Kansas, before we left for Portugal. I think I understand their tears a little bit better now that I've started to cry them, too.

I also couldn't help but think about the many other firsts that I'll get to experience with my girls and the tears I'll probably cry once their out of sight. I'm sure they'll catch me crying at some point. I just hope they understand that the tears, while they may be shed out of sadness that my little girls are growing up, are really ones that flow out of the excitement I see as I look out at their futures.