this is the job that never ends…

yes it goes on and on my friends…

parenting. that is.

i have a friend who is expecting.
there's not even really a whisper of a babybump yet. she's that tiny. (grrrr)

and i'm on the opposite end of the baby spectrum.

i'm about to become (gasp!) an empty nester.
on the one hand, i'm doing the naked empty nest dance in our dining room. on the other hand, i'm buying stock in kleenex.
and i'm also realizing that our empty nest doesn't mean that our time as parents has come to a close.
nothing could be farther from the truth.
for now, we're helping our little eaglets navigate life on their own.
to learn how to "suckitup" and live life without their mommies and daddies.
like when boy wonder tore his ACL on a soccer field about six weeks into his freshman year at college. we live 90 minutes away. he called, a slobbering, snotty mess on the phone. probably in a heap on the sidelines. he couldn't quite sit there swelling for the next two hours while we ran down to get him. i mean, it's dark at midnite!
so what's a mommy to do? she tells her baby eaglet she's sorry that he's torn his ACL for the second time in 7 months, then she tells him do limp on back to his dorm, get some ice and take some ibuprofen.what would have been helpful would have been the part where i would have packed a little triage kit for college. ziplock bags for ice. ibuprophen. ace bandages. bandaids. neosporin. bactine. tylenol.
i mean, really. he never stops moving for a minute. surely he's going to need a little glue to put humpty dumpty back together every now and then!
as they say, hindsight is 20/20. it would have been a good thing to send with him. too bad i didn't.
so while i'm feeling:
a) devastated that he's torn his ACL for the second time, same knee, in 7 months and feel for him because he knows exactly what is ahead of him (mostly the rehab and no fun for the next 9 months)
b) terrible because when a child wants their mommy, they want their MOMMY! and she' s ready to make that happen!
c) crazed at how i'm going to get ice and ibuprofen to my child who is 90 minutes away.
i found someone to do a drive-by nursing stop (and a mom, at that!). and i told him how to use his medical insurance card and how to find a good orthopaedic clinic and how to get himself there.
he handled the rest. he even got his own MRI.
he managed. he had a little growing up to do, and he made it and managed just fine, thankyouverymuch.
and so now, almost a year later, we're parenting again. the registering for summer classes and scrambling around trying to recoup the $2,000 shortfall he's going to have this fall as he lost his scholarship by .6 of a point.teaching accountability, responsibility, proactivity and what it looks like to put col 3:23-24 into practice. it's one thing to say it's your life verse. (whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.) it's another thing to have it BE your life verse.

so yeah.

parenting.

it's the job that never ends…

thank goodness. because i'd hate to think that our kids really would stop needing me. or their dad. i'm pretty glad parenting is a life-long job.
really, it's a life-long joy.