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ORIGINAL: karlie

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but I am NOT ready for one of my fledglings to be done yet! I KNOW she is ready though.

How have you dealt with the myriad of emotions that come with this?

It's really tough, especially with the first. Six months after our oldest daughter graduated high school, she went off to boot camp 2500 miles away(she joined the Navy). So we went from homeschooling and being together so much, to basically being cut off from her. I envied the parents whose kids just went off to college...at least they could call them anytime they wanted! We had to go cold turkey those first couple months and it wasn't fun.

There was definitely a grieving process we had to walk through. We knew she was ready and that we had done all we could to prepare her for adult life, but it hurt. We knew it signaled a forever change in the relationship and that from now on, when she was home, it wouldn't be as our child, but as our visiting adult daughter.

How I dealt with the emotions was to just allow myself to cry when I felt like it, but get on with living my life. I reminded myself that this was a process and that in time, it wouldn't be so sad. I also concentrated on her amazing accomplishments and how proud we were of the young lady she became. It helps to be able to say "we did our job and did it well".

I also embraced the new relationship and found so much joy in that. I wasn't the disciplinarian anymore. I could just enjoy her as a young woman and we started relating on a deeper and amazing level. I think the trick is to allow yourself to feel sad, but also look for the positive things in the changes. It does get easier in time...I promise! And it was much easier to let our baby go than it was our oldest, but then, she just moved an hour away to college, so that seemed like a breeze compared to what our oldest did!

Praying for you...I know it causes an ache like nothing else.