New Perspective

First day of my last child's School Days!
Can it be? Has this day finally arrived?
I recall standing outside our new house when Jon was starting Kindergarten and waiting with nervous, excited, anticipation for the bus. The bus that would never arrive. In fact for three panic stricken days the bus did not come to our corner.
Finally by the second week of school they had figured out that the intersecting streets on the map, intersect in two places!
Then Two years later, Katie waits on the same corner with the same nervous anticipation as does our last child Kelsey another two years later.

Now, fast forward 13 years. I lay in bed while my oldest, (now married and not living at home! ) leaves for school.
My middle child leaves for school and the baby of the family leaves for her full-time nanny job. Toting her computer AKA, homeschool, along with her beginning her senior year!!

It is so incredible to me to look back and realize how fast the time has gone.

This is no longer a new chapter in the Book Of Bettelli Life for me. This is an entirely new book in the series.
One that I cannot seem to put down!

Gone, are our days of backpacks and spiffy new shoes, packing lunches, signing emergency cards, breakfast on the go, driving them when they missed the bus, driving back when they forgot their lunch. Driving back again when they forgot their permission slip, field trips, room mom duties and buying school supplies!!! (that one hurts the most)

But, I will tell you this, the fact that I was fortunate enough to GET to do all of those things everyday of my life has been the greatest reward!
You see, looking back at the last 20 years I can say with all honesty that I HAVE NO REGRETS!

That is the best reward of being a stay at home mom.
Was it easy? Uh, is climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro with no oxygen easy? No, it was not always easy. Sometimes I felt forgotten, unappreciated, invisible and just plain tired.
However, all of that was producing in me, perseverance, patience, kindness and self control.
I now know that my kids were God's design for me to become the woman he was making me.

So on your Mt. Kilimanjaro days, please keep this in mind. It won't always be this hard.
Someday you might be alone in your house on the first day of school at 8:30 and still in your jammies writing a blog! Hoping your truth will change someone else's  perspective.
Send your kids off with a tear or a smile and skip in your step. Neither one is wrong!
 Enjoy every moment and be there when they need you and know that when you all "grow up" they will return the favor!!