Well, that’s it – he’s on his way to Heathrow to catch his plane to Addis Ababa before boarding the next plane to Kilamanjaro. They don’t warn you about this at ante natal classes when you think that the worst worry you will have is chicken pox or potty training. They don’t mention - ‘hey, in 22 years he’ll be travelling on his own – thousands of miles away with all his possessions packed up in a back pack.’
Maybe it’s a good thing that they don’t. Then you can concentrate on the little things that seem big at the time and you can encourage them to be independent and to think for themselves. Nurture an interest for the wider world, to further their interests and encourage them to see as much of that wide world as possible and experience as many new things as they can. Then when they sit at the dinner table and say they have signed up for a volunteer programme in Tanzania and they will be off helping in a Lutheran Primary School in Arusha for over a month, you won’t choke on your roast beef and try to think of a dozen reasons why they shouldn’t go. Eleven of which start with the words, ‘I don’t want you to go’. But he’s so excited – and it WILL be an amazing experience; a life changing opportunity. He will meet so many different kinds of people and cultures and deep down inside, I know that it will really help with the dissertation he has to do for his Masters Degree in African Politics. But it didn’t make it any easier to give that final hug at the door.
So, to take my mind of things, I have started to work on my Scavenger Hunt Album.
It took me so long to get it this far, it does not bode well for an early finish! I’m thinking I will add extra rectangular pages in amongst the acrylic sheets with pockets and tags but it will be a work in progress I think with many changes along the way!
So it is Storytelling Sunday again this weekend, do you have your story ready yet?
6 comments:
Oh Debs, there's a quote by Elizabeth Stone that I love: Making a decision to have a child--it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. It sounds like you've raised a wonderful young man.
Hugs,
Rinda
Forgot to say - I love the shape of your album.
Rinda
You should be proud of yourself for raising such a caring and confident young man. I know that the month will fly by and you will have him back soon and what a fantastic gesture he has made. Gracia's Josh left for a month to work in an Indian orphanage on Monday - it seems to be the thing decent young men do at the moment xxx
Love that quote from Rinda. Be proud of yourself for enabling him to go - and of him for doing it.
Job well done on raising an independent, compassionate young man, Deb! Rinda's quote is one of my favorites for moms, one of my all around favs is "Be the change in the world you want to see!" Indeed, he is doing just that. Love the shape and yellow of the album.
In my thoughts and prayers this month Deb! What an experience...but you're right.... no-one prepares us for this sort of thing!
Alison xx
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