Point of no return...

It's almost 8:00. I happen to have few minutes of peace and quiet, on this, the eve of the day I have dreaded for the last year.

In a few minutes, they will all pile in the back door from their various practices and activites. I will head them all to the bathtub and showers. We will pick out clothes and get backpacks and supplies in order. I will look at my big boys and see each one as the tiny boys that I knew long ago, even though now I have to look up at both of them. I will look at my J and wonder where the last five years went. Seems like I was carrying him on my hip only yesterday. And I will look at my precious baby girl and thank god he gave me one more to hold onto a little while longer.

I am choking back tears already my friends. Typing this through cloudy vision. I know they all grow up but man, I tell ya, every year it gets a little harder to accept. Four short years is all I have left with Ethan. It will be over in a flash. I am also thinking of my dear friends who are sending their babies off to start their senior year and of friends who are sending their last baby and will come home to an empty house for the first time. My heart breaks for them too. Letting go stinks... But, despite these sad moments, that inevitably come, what joy surrounds me in this house. What a privledge and honor it is to be a mom to such wonderful kids. God gave me four gifts... and I am so thankful.