All Grown Up...

Last night was "prom night."  It was Abby's first, even though she's a senior.  She never wanted to go before.  This year is her LAST year in high school, so she wanted to go.  When she came home from taking her AP European History placement test at 3:20 and was scheduled for pictures at 3:45, she wore a look that said, "I'm frazzled."  Yet, when asked if she needed any help, she shook her head and said, "Just let me do it."  Abby has always been independent--in a good way.  She takes initiative in every area of her life--except making her bed!  As she walked through the house with her hair, which had been done that morning in a sophisticated style, bobbing gently it hit me--she's all grown up.  Actually, that reality has been hitting me a lot lately.  She's making good decisions.  She's putting God first.  She's EAGER to get on with her life--college, life on her own, travel....  I thank God for the young woman she has become.  The prayers are bearing fruit.  The endless hours Nancy has invested in her life since she was born, are coming out in who Abby is--a vibrant, confident young woman.  All the tough times she and I have gone through when I coached her in basketball and treated her with a toughness she didn't see me use with the rest of the team, and all the conversations we've had late at night when life was hard, have contributed to who she is.   

She still has the challenge of college before her, but through her middle school and high school years there was never a rebellious streak--she established her identity without rejecting us.  I remember the day she started middle school. I said, "Honey, they say you're going to turn into a monster; that middle schoolers turn into monsters, but that's not going to happen to you.  You know why?"  She shook her head.  She didn't know.  I looked her square in the eye and said, "Because Marshalls eat monsters for breakfast."  She laughed--we laughed--but she never turned into a monster, and she HAS eaten a lot of monsters for breakfast. 

She called at 1:11 a.m.  She had promised she'd call when she made it from the prom to a friend's house where a group were spending the rest of the night.  We found out this morning at 7:15 when she called that the rest had stayed up all night, but she went to bed at 3:00, because she's working today.  Good decision.  She keeps making them, and we keep saying, "Thank you, Jesus," because we know that if you train up a child in the way she should go, when she is old she won't depart from it.  We're thankful, because we know in a few short months she'll be making all her own decisions. We won't be around to tell her or even suggest what she ought to do. Hopefully, the phone will ring occasionally with her on the other end asking what we would do.  We keep praying, and thanking God, because we see that Abby IS all grown up, and ready to meet the world by God's grace and strength.