College Goodbyes

I have a series of blogposts that have been in my head for a little more than a number of days that I'm writing out as I have the patience and time to do so. Here's another one (I'm kind of glad I waited as now I have a follow-up)...

Our dear friend Margaret left for college a little more than a week ago. Ria made her a beautiful little (and very last minute) photo collage to a lovely, very reminiscent Irish tune called "Miss Rowan Davies". (Margaret's mom wasn't the only one with tears in her eyes while watching this tribute.) I'm definitely starting to feel the approach of similar prospects for Ria as Margaret is the first of her friends to leave for college.

One of the fun things about sending off our friend is that, in the midst of my home and school organization we were able to send her off with some freezer chests and desk-organization-type-stuff that we no longer needed. Turns out she's an office-supply-type person too. :)

She was so excited about the three week out-dooring orientation at the college and we're all jealous of the fantastic views of the Perseids she must be having!

Anyway, her mom and dad (great friends who I deeply admire) just returned home a few days ago bubbling with appreciation for the school she's attending and the wonderful people they met there. She surprised me by saying, "It actually felt good to leave her there," with only a slightly qualified, "You know what I mean." And yes, I do.

And speaking of hard college goodbyes, check out the beautiful tribute Elizabeth has for her oldest son's goodbye. I've long believed that these separations are particularly hard on homeschool moms because they haven't had as much practice with smaller separations through the years.

So, this is sort of turning into a tribute to homeschool grads and their moms. Take a look at these blogs and see if you agree that their love and their tears are doing great things (feel free to comment with additional URLs).

Margaret's Blog
Michael Foss's Blog