#BABYBIRDLEAVESTHENEST-I prayed for this child and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.-I Samuel 1:27-28

As we traveled on the interstate with my great-niece and her 14-year-old sister as her passenger, following us on that bright Sunday morning, I could feel myself becoming even more emotional than I had been all week. The day had finally come when one of my baby birds was leaving the nest. You see I knew my nieces and nephews would be leaving and they left. But my great-nieces and nephews weigh a little different. Her grandmother and I drove in front of her while her parents and her baby br0ther and her two other sisters followed her. I wondered how they were feeling. Were they feeling the same feelings that I had experienced the day my older sister left for college? -The day “MY” older sister left, our trip, included my 4 other and older siblings, myself and cousins. It was to the local bus station and although it was exciting, I felt a great loss when she boarded that bus and left. We cried like it was the end of the world. I think even at age 5 I knew she was going far away. Months and even years after she left, my brother Jeffery and I would hate to hear “Midnight Train to Georgia” and yes she left on a bus but we related it to that moment in our lives. Even today that song takes me back to the night she left and for a moment I feel that sad feeling from many years ago. 🙂 🙂

So, as I was saying we were nowhere over 40 years later traveling with my great-niece on her move in day to college. For two and a half hours I found myself saying “Get over “baby bird” every time we changed lanes looking back to see if the baby bird was moving over safely and timely. The pain I was feeling came from watching our baby bird move not only from lane to lane. but also because she was entering her first year of college and yes leaving the nest.

Ironically, she was traveling on one of the same interstates I traveled over 30 years ago when I traveled to college. Perhaps my emotions were from the memory of my mother on MY move-in day or it just might have been me really feeling the empty nest syndrome. But, it might have been because one other person sitting in the back seat with me ON MY MOVE IN DAY OVER 30 years ago that day, was a 4-year-old little girl my niece Rachel, her mother.