I have heard that when you have a child, you have decided to go through the rest of your life with your heart on the outside of your body. The vulnerability to which we subject ourselves by loving someone so intensely is hardly disputable, but I never realized until Sunday how painful it could be. Poor Son Number Two was just trying to get back to school in time for second semester of freshman year, when weather and bad airline connections stranded him alone in Philadelphia overnight without his luggage. Thank goodness the boys had talked me into adding texting to their cell phones. With Mom on hold with her cell phone, Dad on hold on the house phone, and both of us scrambling on our computers, we were able to book him on a flight the next day but not until 1:45 in the afternoon, more than 25 hours after his planned arrival. We talked him down off the ledge via long distance, directed him to Travelers' Aid and a hotel room for the night, and gave suggestions on how best to position himself for standby possibilities for the 7:30AM flight instead. It involved his getting up at 5:00AM, but he managed, and at 11:30AM I got the text that he was in his classroom and his professor's French accent was not bad at all.
We had taken him to the airport in ample time, hugged and cried and done all the things we'd promised we wouldn't do (OK...I did. Himself was a rock!) and still it didn't turn out well. Once again I was forced to accept that there are things in the Universe about which I can do nothing. So I did what I always do in such cases. I sent a "knee-mail" to God. At 5:00AM, when my younger son was getting up alone in a strange city, I was talking to the Boss, turning him over with faith that he would be protected. In less time than it should have taken my baby to get to the airport in Philly, I got a text from him that he had his boarding pass for the 7:30 flight.
I'll learn how to do the long distance college thing eventually. I hate having my "baby" so far away, and it may involve sending him back to school before he actually has to be there. He learned that he can cope in a crisis (even without a toothbrush) and I learned that he can cope in a crisis (even without me) and those were two important lessons. Now where's the sherry? I'm a wreck!
We had taken him to the airport in ample time, hugged and cried and done all the things we'd promised we wouldn't do (OK...I did. Himself was a rock!) and still it didn't turn out well. Once again I was forced to accept that there are things in the Universe about which I can do nothing. So I did what I always do in such cases. I sent a "knee-mail" to God. At 5:00AM, when my younger son was getting up alone in a strange city, I was talking to the Boss, turning him over with faith that he would be protected. In less time than it should have taken my baby to get to the airport in Philly, I got a text from him that he had his boarding pass for the 7:30 flight.
I'll learn how to do the long distance college thing eventually. I hate having my "baby" so far away, and it may involve sending him back to school before he actually has to be there. He learned that he can cope in a crisis (even without a toothbrush) and I learned that he can cope in a crisis (even without me) and those were two important lessons. Now where's the sherry? I'm a wreck!
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