The past three days

In the past three days, I have registered K for preschool and registered L and O for Kindergarten.

In the past three days, I have tried not to hyperventilate when I think about J going to Junior High next year while L and O enter the land of school and K leaves me for two and a half hours twice a week.

In the past three days, I've have teared up many times and grabbed my children to hug them and smell their heads and say a little prayer that God will slow the time down.

When I was in grad school, I became friends with a girl whose mother unexpectedly got pregnant late in life--with twins, no less. Since there was a rather large age gap between the twins and the other children in the family, the twins because the center of their mother's universe. Then, the day came for them to go to school.

People asked my friend's mom if she was sad to see them go and how much she cried on the first few days of school. Her answer is what is keeping me from turning into a complete puddle of mush who needs a Prozac cocktail to go on living. She said, "I see so many people who are heartbroken because either their children have died, or their children have such severe disabilities that their lives will never be what a parent dreams will happen for their children. I'm just happy that my girls are able to go to school. They have nothing wrong with them, and they are healthy. God has blessed me and for me to sit around crying because they're "normal" is just a slap in His face."

Amen.

Now pass me a Kleenex, please.