All their bags are packed, they're ready to go, the hustle and bustle of getting grown young adults ready to venture out on their own is Exhausting   .......... Noisy........Busy.........Disorganized      And yet as I anticipate the thunderous silence that will greet me tomorrow night as I return home from work, I dread it.

My  large home, the one that got smaller as children moved back in and now with their mass exodus, looks even bigger, will still be home...my tupperware cabinet will now stay neat and orderly; the cooking utensil drawer won't get jammed anymore because invariably someone put the ladle in backwards and got it stuck in the drawer.  Wet towels won't greet me when I walk into their bathroom.  I'll still have a wet towel her and there because my youngest is still home. My razors will be where I put them because no one will have run out and need them and run to my bathroom and take my last one. Alarm clocks won't be going off at all hours of the morning and the TV will finally get the rest it needs. 

I send them out prepared for life, I hope.  The lessons I've given each and everyone of them emblazened in their brains and the sound of my voice will echo in their ears when the time is right. I feel a mixture of pride and fear............and wonder as I look upon these adults (four I've brought into this World; two who I'd give the World to; and for all of them I'd go to the Ends of the Earth to protect).

So here I stand in the middle of my Living Room...laughing through tears or crying through chuckles hoping and praying that all good things come their way and knowing my life is better because of them for it has been my pleasure to have been their teacher along the way.

And for my Amber who has chosen to serve her Country, my biggest tears, fears, and pride.  She has promised not to make me a Gold Star Mother...here's hoping she keeps that promise.