I know this feeling well. The restlessness, the irritation, the pushing away, the short tempers, the to do lists, the half-packed bags, the distance, the tension between too much time and not enough time before D-day . . .
but I wasn’t able to identify it until this past weekend because it’s my son who is leaving this time. He’s not going to college, he’s deploying, literally and figuratively. And all the what-ifs and unknowns loom large and his desire to hurry up and go is matched by my desire to have him gone because anticipation of leaving is usually worse than the leaving itself.
I’m proud of him, but he’s working hard to make sure that I know that he doesn’t need me and that he’s “got this,” but if he would just listen I think I could save him some pain.
I’m not worried about his safety, but I do worry how much he’ll change and I wonder what he’ll be like when I see him again — the same fears I held each time Josh left.
He’ll fly to America on Saturday — inshallah, because flights from here keep getting cancelled and right now we’re still in crazy quarantine which deserves a blog post of its own. After 14 days in the US he’ll report, enlist, and get his ship date to boot camp. I hope he texts me to let me know what his plans are. Bless him — his idea of communication and mine are like night and day.
4 days left. Too long and too short.
Wow! What an exciting and “scary” time, I cannot wait to see all the cool stuff God will do with Carter. Praying for the next couple of weeks plus and the transition time for him.
Oh Robin …
You’ve had ro go through this in your life so many times…But that makes it harder….NOT EASIER!
The PAIN is accumulative !!!
I remember the tension between us when you were leaving for Westmont and Santa Barbara…Not even that far away…but still there is that knowledge that things will never be the same…
Mom and I used to say…We are both “CUTTING THE STRINGS !”
BUT…with the life you have led with your children half way around the world 🌍 in Egypt 🇪🇬 USA 🇺🇸
OMAN 🇴🇲 BAHRAIN 🇧🇭 UAE 🇦🇪 …
there has developed instead a bunch of survival ROPES as thick as the ones that will someday tie Carter’s ship to the dock….
Those are not “Strings” and much harder to disconnect or cut..,
in order for the ship 🚢 to pull away from the dock into the open ocean…leaving the security if the safe Harbor behind.
What a difficult time these days are.
Anger ends up being the “by-product” of the PAIN…FEAR…and FRUSTRATION of hacking at those ropes In order to be able to let go. 😢
LOVE YOU…And that Navy man’s ship will sail back into that SAFE HARBOR
some day and will be THANKFUL for all the LOVE and character building years you shared together.
“ANCHORS AWAY!”
DAD ♥️
Thanks Dad. The rope analogy is a good one and helps put it in perspective.
It’s never easy when they leave, even when you are ready for them to be gone xx Did he get safely to the US? Karen in NZ
yes, he did get home to CA on Saturday after spending a week with family in Chicago. He’s doing great. thanks for checking on him!