How Can I Last a Week Without My Girl?

My daughter, my youngest is going on vacation with one of her friends to South Carolina for a week.

This will be the longest time I have ever spent apart from her...a week that I am NOT looking forward to.

My girl is so tremendously special to me, that the love I feel for her is an actual ache.

She was born eighteen years to the day that my Mother died. Her first name is my Mother's maiden name...Massey.

I love all three of my children equally and deeply...but my "girl" is my best friend...and a connection and link to my Mother that I realize God gave me when he sent her into my life on the same day that he took my Mother out of my physical life.

She scratches my back when I ask her. She makes me my glass of Nestle's Quik every morning, and she kisses me every night before she goes to bed. If I am working at night, she always sends me a text saying "G NITE...LUV U"

I am terrified of her driving in a car with someone for such a long distance...once I receive a text that she has gotten to South Carolina, I think that I will feel better. But who knows?

I know that both of my sons are envious of the close bond that she and I share,
but us women HAVE to stick together....we are totally outnumbered by the testosterone in our house.

I can honestly say that everyone who has ever met my daughter has been totally sucked in by her. She is a delightful girl...wise beyond her years (although her report cards do not show it) and has a heart that is full, joyous and giving.

She chooses her friends not because they are pretty or popular...but because she likes them. She will befriend someone that others are cruel to, because it is part of who she is, and she knows that it is the right thing to do. For a twelve year old girl to have that quality is amazing to me (if you have ever had any experience with middle school age girls, you know of what I speak).

I am sure that the week will go by fine, with no problems...but it is hard to let your youngest go so far away for such a long period of time.

It is hard to let them grow up...for when they grow up, they seem to grow away. And again, she is my youngest...my last "BABY".

How did my kids grow up so quickly, and how am I going to deal with them leaving the nest, leaving my home, and leaving me with an empty feeling as I watch them all grow into young adults and begin to create their own life on their own?

Granted, she is only twelve, but she will be thirteen next month...and before I know it she will be twenty!!

My boys are easier...they will meet a woman one day that will shove them down the path of life. I am just hoping that Massey has the right man to shove down the path of life. But if her childhood choice of friends has been any indication...she should be alright. And if she happens to make a bad choice...Thank God she HAS two brothers.

I only have six days left before she comes back...and I will be marking them off the kitchen calendar with a big "X " , as if I was sitting in a prison cell counting down my days to freedom.

Who in the heck is going to bring me my glass of chocolate milk in the morning?

It is going to be a long, long week!!

Till next time COTTON