Tomorrow morning, you start school. Kindergarten! You are, without a doubt, "ready", in every sense of the word. I am confident in your confidence, in your wisdom, in YOU.
This will be a new chapter for our family, for me, and most certainly, for you. Emerson, every season with you has been a joy; this newest adventure will be no different. Still, I am all too aware that with the opening of that classroom door tomorrow, there is one behind us closing. You sense that change, and with a wisdom beyond your years (as I've become accustomed to you having), seem to grasp the emotion that comes with that. This is all so very bittersweet, for both of (...for all of...) us.
Lately, I've been looking at a photo on the fridge of you and me at your 9-month doctor appointment. And, although I remember the absolute happiness that came with that season of your life, I can't help but think about what a stranger that baby girl in the photograph seems to be, compared to the six-year-old I know now. Baby Emerson was a lot of fun (and, oh, I have always marveled at you!), but what I didn't know then was how incredible you are now. I didn't know what it would feel like to listen to you pretend to be "Andy" and "Barney" in the backyard with Brennan, to watch you silently draw an "abstract" piece of art, or gently push Easton in the swing...to see you "play chase" with your daddy, or to hear you sing the "Doxology". You are a treasure...and not yet even all God has designed you to be. Wow. What a thought....
Part of me wants to keep you here at home with me, so I won't have to miss you, and so I can keep you safe. But, the truth is, it wasn't Daddy or me that ever really has. No, since the moment you were created, God has guided and guarded your every step...from before you even began taking them! I'm not now "sharing" you with the world, because you aren't mine to share. You belong to Him; you are His precious child. So, even though tomorrow I won't be holding your hand, I know the One who holds you so securely in His.
I just have a feeling that, in a few years, I'll look back at your first school picture, remembering how special it was knowing and loving six-year-old you...but thinking, too, how the child pictured there seems to be, somehow, a stranger. What will I know about you then that I haven't yet learned?! Oh, how exciting it is...how exciting it will be...to find out!
Emerson, welcome to Kindergarten! You are going to shine. Precious, you already do.
And, I will never stop marveling at you.
Love,
Mommy
P.S. Our Olive Garden date this week was so much fun. Let's do it again soon, okay?
