The Acceptance Letter

 As soon as the calendar turned to June, it was time for me to prepare to work at two homeschool conventions back to back weekends and send Aliza to work at camp. 

The first homeschool convention was in Richmond. This is a long convention. I drive to Richmond on Wednesday night. We set up Thursday morning, have team lunch, participate in a focus group for BJU and then the vendor hall is open 6-8pm. Friday the vendor hall is open 9am-8pm and Saturday it is open 9am-6pm and then we tear down the display. This year I drove home on Sunday after I went to the early service at Taylor's church. 

This year it was especially hard to be away since I missed a lot of things going on at home. Josiah's best friend had his graduation and party, my sister was here from Indiana and my whole family got together and Aliza left to work at camp again this summer. 

Aliza had made a list of romantic comedy movies that I had watched in high school that she we wanted to watch together. We watched three the week before she left and the night before she left, she called me and we talked for over an hour. I cried when we hung up. Last summer Aliza missed her Dad and wasn't at all concerned about being away from me. This summer she misses me and wants to stay connected to me in a different way.  

I went to work in the booth Saturday morning. Jeremy and Anna were planning to take Aliza to meet her team that afternoon. Aliza and I had decided we would not talk on Saturday because I was still weepy. At lunchtime, Aliza told me she changed her mind. She wanted to call. And so I called her on my lunch break a little while later. 

Thankfully, I had waited to call until I had finished eating. Aliza had checked the mail and her acceptance letter waiting for her. She called to tell me that she was accepted into the dental hygiene program that she has been working towards the last 2 years! This program accepts 20 students each fall based solely on GPA. Any tiebreakers are determined by time of application. I knew that Aliza had applied as early as possible and she had a 4.0 GPA. My mom instinct was that she would be accepted so I wasn't really shocked by her news. Aliza, on the other hand, was not convinced she had done enough and was surprised and relieved that she was accepted. 

That being said, when I hung up the phone, the tears came quickly and wouldn't stop. I knew it would hit hard when that acceptance letter came and it was official. Of course I was very proud of Aliza's accomplishment and very happy for her that she can pursue the career that she wants to! The Mom ache in my heart for the changes it brings to our family is very real too. (That ache continues to creep up unexpectedly and brings tears to my eyes at odd times.)

And then my lunch break was over and I needed to head back to work. I had a 5 minute walk back to the booth to get myself together. It didn't work. The ladies took one look at me and thought something horrible happened. I assured them something very GOOD had happened!