A Household of Three

We area household of three again.  As parents, we hope we have given our children roots that they feel strong, but also wings so they can move on with their own lives, taking on challenges and making the most of opportunities.  I have now fully launched out of the home two adult children.  DD#1 hit the road for her westward move.  This time, as a cousin reminded me, she is a non-passport airplane ride away.  It will feel odd though as we try and  pack up the remnants she left behind, items that will need to be shipped, knowing this house will be a place to visit, not her home. 

My son has not really been home for more than a college break or a visit since the summer after his freshman year. He's had multiple moves, and is planning another at the end of the month.  In his head he was already independent back then, but  the clutter he left behind, and the calls for just a "small bit of a loan", told me otherwise.  This move of my daughter though feels like the cords with both kids have been officially cut.

They have whole relationships and experiences that I have no part of.  My son's work has taken him for weeks at a time all over the country; living out of a small suitcase and a backpack is the norm to him.  While I travel frequently for work and short trips at that, I am happy to be back home in my own house and bed at the end of the trip. We met many of my daughters international friends when we visited England last spring, but not nearly all.  On her birthday two weeks ago, she was receiving cards and gifts from England, Italy, and India, and Facebook greetings from countries so far and wide I couldn't name them. The flowers in this post were sent from her dear friend in Bulgaria-the wonders of e-commerce. She couldn't take them with in her jam packed card, but two weeks later, they are still fresh and beautiful, and it is bittersweet looking at them while I type this post.

My daughter is on the road as I type this.  I will feel angst until I know she has safely arrived at her final destination, and yet more angst, until I know she has settled into  her new home and job. She has a good head on her shoulders, and once my son moves, she will have family again near her.  I've connected her with a work colleague and friend who lives in the incredibly big city she has moved to, so help is an emergency call away should she need it.  As I feel the angst, I also feel some of her excitement, and have a little envy of what starting fresh in a new place might be like.  It is a fleeting envy though.  I love my little house, my pup, the hubby, and DD#2, with whom we have a lot of  her life to be a participant in before she graduates.  It is a new phase.  We are a household of three again.