Will you let me go?

12 hours/ 750 miles away.

Will you let me go?   Multiple times I have been asked this in my 22 years of parenting.  You know what I mean.  Can I go to grandmas, a friends house, a reenactment, a movie, to Pekin.........Today Sarah asked if we would let her go here.  Edinburg, Virginia.  Will you let me go?.......(*sigh*).  We have been talking about this for awhile.  But somehow when the plans your talking about seem very far away in the future its not such a big deal you know?  So today, when she smiling from ear to ear, more excited than I have seen her in a couple years, asked this question.  It really sank in as....Will   I  be able to let her go? (*another sigh* and a *sniff*)  For a year.....Hmmmmm.   She wants to go to an 800 acre farm in the Shenandoah Valley to do an internship on a farm.  Have you ever heard of Joel Salatin? This farm does the same thing as the Salatins. They themselves interned  many years ago with the Salatins. Raising pasture fed beef, chickens, lamb, all kinds of things. For Farmers markets, local drop offs, from farmer to customer. From the field to the table.  All of it feeding, butchering, marketing, delivering.  The best food, raised the way it was supposed to be done.  They are actually sister and brother in law to the Salatins who live close by.  They pay you to come, to work, to learn how to do it yourself.  Getting paid for intensive livestock farming for a whole year.  Four different seasons.  She will love it.  I am certain.  She has a gift.  A love for raising animals, but a huge gift for marketing.  All of this would be valuable knowledge. No matter what she chooses to do with it.

So.......Will you let me go? Hmmmmm....  (*sigh*) .  Yes....We will.  But only from our house. Never from our heart.   Never from our thoughts.   Never from our prayers.  My stomach hurts.

About 10 days from now we will help her make the trip.  She will be fine.  I will be eventually.  After a 4 day trial period. Both she and they will decide if she wants to stay.  For a year.  It will be quite an adventure. The first time living away from home. She will love it. : )
We went through this similar situation with Emily only 2 years ago.  I can honestly say I felt the exact sam way and I have not gotten any better at "letting go."  8 more kids to try to let go of. 8 more tries to get used to the idea of sending them out.  (*sigh*) Makes my stomach hurt just to think of it.  : )