My Firstborn has attended college for one semester and came home for a three-week vacation during the holidays. We got used to him being home again and almost took it for granted that he would eventually go back to school. A week or so ago as we were all sitting around the family room watching TV and playing Words with Friends–and other addictive iPhone apps–the realization hit me that he would be leaving us again and a wave of sadness swept over me.
He will be leaving for his two-year missionary service sometime next summer. Since I was once a missionary, I have always felt that I won’t be a blubbering mother come the day he enters the MTC. But after the feeling I had the other day, I’m not so sure anymore. Even though I know what it’s like for him to attend college away from home, and even though I know what it’s like to serve a mission, I guess that–in the end–I’m still a mother. I will be a blubbering fool with red, swollen eyes along with all the other red, swollen-eyed mothers dropping their children off at the MTC curb. Sigh.
