Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Well, Time For A Big Change

My 21 year-old daughter, our only child, is moving out. She's getting an apartment closer to where she goes to school and where she works. It will only be about 25 miles from us. But it might as well be 2500 as she won't be at home.

I remember well the day that I took her to catch the school bus for the first time. My mind is flooded with memories of the summers that she and I goofed around when I had a day off and my wife was working. We sure could find crazy ways to kill time just being goofy. When did it suddenly all end? Where did those times go? It seems like only yesterday.

But now she is all grown up and so lady-like. She is as beautiful as any fashion model or member of any royal family. She's also so mature, so level headed. (She must get it from my wife as I'm still trying to be a kid.) Above all she is a terrific Christian, full of love for the Lord. She even worships by herself, playing her piano and just singing to the Lord.

But now all of that will be taking place 25 miles from us. I won't be coming home to find her sprawled out in front of the TV or singing to the Lord in her room. My wife and I won't be hearing her come home from her job at Children's Hospital at midnight. There won't be the constant flow of her friends, male and female, stopping by enroute to some other adventure. No, it's going to be pretty boring around this place.

To be sure, I won't have to back around her car every time I want to go someplace. And I will finally be able to fill in the ruts in the side yard where she parks her car in the summer. No longer will I have to play a guessing game if the mess in the kitchen was left by my wife or daughter. No more will I have to figure out whose underwear belongs to who when I do the laundry (if it ain't mine then it will have to be my wife's!). No, things just won't be the same.

And that will be a shame.

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