You Will Always Be His Momma

• She wrote that her first born was moving out.
• Oh, how I know that excitement and heartache. I have had two leave home for college and beyond. My baby girl is testing her wings right now. I rushed off these words to my friend and thought maybe some other mommas might find encouragement in them as well.
  Dear Sweet Friend,
  You are right to not feel ready, you are never ready. Because you will always be his momma. He will always be your baby.
  But that now becomes a secret that you hide in your heart. You must remember the strength you had when you were in labor and you felt like you had given everything and it was still too hard but you did it anyway. That momma strength will see you through.
  You will remember that God loves this manchild more than you could ever ever imagine and give him to the Lord...again. The love he shows you and the communication may dwindle to a drip. He may even be a little hateful, but it is just to cut the ties he feels to you. He doesn’t know how to do it any other way.
  You will cry and cry.
  Everything will remind you of the boy years and, heaven forbid, the baby years too. But you will be strong and know this is God's plan for him and all boys who are walking into manhood.
  You will try to find a balance between being truthful in missing him and being morose and letting this rob you of your joy. And you will make that balance work because the other kids are missing him too and watching you and wondering how to live it out.
  Now you get to become his cheer leader and prayer partner.
  Always give hope, always encourage.
  Never say I wish you had talked to me first, because he needs to own and learn from his mistakes. Enjoy his independence with him, even when everything in you wants to lock him in the closet and never let him out.
  It will get better.
  Your life will change and your world  grow larger again. You will find delight in the small freedoms and new (sometimes scary) opportunities that will begin to unfold for you. You will remember the girl you were before you were mom. You will dream old dreams and live new ones that God had planned all along.
   You will make it!
  And you will do it again and again as each one makes their way out to begin their own journey. Children are like a River... they leave and leave and suddenly return like the tide, needing you like never before.
  What lies before you is such joy in having adult children.
  The joy of hearing "Mom, Ive been praying about this job and I think Ive got it!"
  And "Mom, there's this girl..."
  Then, " Mom, could you help me look at rings?"
  
  And suddenly he is looking down at you, with love and gratitude as you dance at his wedding, and you can’t help but remember holding him in your arms and swinging him to your own lullaby.
  Yes, I will pray for you. God has seen you through so much He is faithful to hold you in this too.
  He is the one who put that momma heart in you, after all.
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