And....we are here. How did we get here so fast? It seems like yesterday Big S and I were going to homeschool day at McKays and learning to read before gym class on Monday afternoons. The days were slow. We brought blankets to the park to play board games in the Spring and jumped on the trampoline together in the Fall.
Then the years just started passing by when I had Little S and then my sisters moved in a year later. Life was different, but the joy was there. When Big S was older, we joined the church, and that became our community for the last decade. Life kept moving so fast. And here we are. Life just keeps happening around me.
So much has changed this year. Our pastoral family and close friends stepped down at the church. Our best friends moved to Pennsylvania. A new pastor stepped in. We were able to get completely get rid of Little S's chronic pain and knock down her MCAS flares to almost non existent. (Major praise after over 2 years of searching for answers!) We decided to foster. I went on a cleaning and rearranging spree to prepare. Our furniture is different. Our finished basement is more usable and fun. I took things off the walls and put new things on. Got a new bed for the playroom. (None of this was a big deal to me, but I think Little S lost a piece of herself in that.) Big S graduated high school and college. The same pastoral family, another set, recently moved to Florida. (And with them, another set of my daughter's closest friends.) My baby is about to hit double digits. My now adult daughter is working, driving herself around, AND I am pretty sure unknowingly dating someone. 🤣 My Husband has moved from saying, "We can try respite. I think that's a good compromise." to "Maybe we should consider adopting." I'm kind of digging my heels in on that. I'm not so sure. As much as I have always wanted to adopt, we are entering a season of possible grandkids and a career. Sometimes we don't get a say in what we are supposed to do. I prayed for years the Lord will incline my husband's heart toward adoption, and here I am fighting it.
The holidays look different. This year my Little S is trick or treating with friends. (All the kids in the family are going with friends.) We've opened our house to visitors on holidays. (Something we have always wanted to do, but received a lot of opposition from family.) Pretty soon there will be marriages and babies. With 4 new adults on the family, somebody is bound to be married in 5 years. Five years happens quick.
The most recent change was having to get rid of our trampoline. The trampoline has held so many memories for our family over the years, but recently has gotten less and less use. We got a new roof, switched insurances, and trampolines are not allowed. That was the tipping point for my Little S. The tears finally started rolling and just wouldn't stop. We spent hours cuddling after, and I realized that soon that may stop too.
Our lives have changed so rapidly in just the past 10 months. So much that is good, so much that is bittersweet, and a little bit of heartbreak. But things keep changing, and we just keep going.
I began writing this to say what a joy it is to go watch my oldest step into the Young Adult years. If I'm being honest, senior year was rough. She wanted freedom, but she also didn't. She wanted to be a kid again. She got her dual enrollment work done, but she drug her feet when it came to going to work and complained a lot about everything. She just kept saying she wished she could be a kid again. However, we made it out of senior year with everything completed.
We entered the summertime with feet dragging when it came to getting her cosmetology license. She was scared. When she finally submitted it, she encountered all sorts of problems because they entered her birthday wrong, and because she was still 17. She got her license and drug her feet trying to find work. Her confidence lacked. And then it happened. It all happened little by little, but it feels like all at once. Young adulthood looks good on her.
She began this year taking over as worship leader at the church. Now she is participating in church district events and making friends in the area all over. Then she picked up a job as a party princess. She is currently Ariel at most events. But the biggest gift of all was the hair salon she found. She went into cosmetology because of her love for the elderly community. She knew she wanted to work with them, but she didn't want to be a nurse. She is artsy and fun loving and very very social, and she wants to be home with her kids most of the time. So she began cosmetology school with the ultimate goal of having her own traveling business and going to nursing homes. When she completed school, she knew she needed more training. She must have gone to over 50 salons looking for work. Nobody was hiring. (She spent a day shadowing at one place, but was not a good fit. She had a phone interview with a place in Cleveland, but the lady let her know real quick that if she did not plan to stay and rent a chair after the first year, she had no use for her.) She started getting nervous. Typical salons are not her scene. They can be rough and, of course, trendy, which she is not. So we sat down and tried to find salons with older clients. She drove to one we saw online that was only open a few days a week. (A good start considering she has 3 other part time jobs.) She walked in and realized it was inside of an assisted living facility. She was instantly in love. The lady told her she couldn't pay her, but she was happy to teach her and let her rent a chair later on down the road. Sam accepted. She has been there a month now, but has already grown so much. She loves the regulars in the salon. She is confident in the things she learned in school. She is learning new techniques. She did a few small things the other day and earned $20 in tips. Her license is now reciprocated in TN, so next week, she officially has 3 clients and will be doing a 60/40 split commission with the lady she is working for. She also has 2 other location options to choose from if she wants more than 2 days a week. Sam is happy as a clam. She gets to do what she loves without all the paperwork and supply stocking. And when she does have kids, she will be in a flexible work environment.
Other than that and being with us and our extended adopted family, she has been spending time with her best friend and a guy friend we have all known for 8 years. (They just never hung out much before because they were in different seasons of life.) Their adventures are endless. They try fancy gluten free restaurants in various new towns. They go English Country dancing on Tuesday nights and skating on Thursday nights. He taught her some skate tricks. (She can now skate backwards.) He's joined us for dinner and movie nights and game nights. It's been good to see Sam go have fun with close friends after her entire last year of constantly panicking about everything. Don't get me wrong, senior year was full of experiences, but the day to day panicked her because she always felt like she was getting ready for the next big thing. Leaving the country, tech week, etc. She always felt like she had to have her work made up before she did that thing and was gone for a week. It was a learning experience to say the least. She also got bullied a lot for the first time in her life, and she almost had to re-find herself in a world that isn't always nice.
She does still work at CFA one night a week. She used to do 3, then 2, now 1. That was her only highschool job. They worked with her, so she didn't have to work often and it was predictable, which was nice for all of us because we really value family time. But eventually she will have to let that go too. It's bittersweet.
But she is enjoying adulthood, and I am absolutely loving watching her do it.
No comments:
Post a Comment