All the precious time
Like the wind the years go by
Precious butterfly
Spread your wings and fly

Good morning!  I hope you had a wonderful time over Thanksgiving--that your heart was filled with joy and love and gratitude.  My holiday was filled with hellos and goodbyes.  My mother, my sister and brother-in-law, their two children and their exchange student from Sardinia arrived Wednesday evening and filled my home with happy laughter.  It was so wonderful to have them visit and so hard to say goodbye yesterday.  It's difficult when loved ones live so far away and visits are limited to a few times a year.  But along with the bittersweet arrival and departure of my family, my husband and I also welcomed into our family....our daughter's fiance!  Oh my! 

My 'baby girl' arrived home from college late Wednesday night with a beautiful heirloom ring on her finger and a happy light in her eyes.  Her fiance is the kind of man parents dream of their daughters meeting--kind, steadfast, caring, and so in love with my daughter.  Welcome, Andrew, to our family!  But even the happy news of an engagement brings another type of goodbye, doesn't it?  Farewell to my sweet little girl, and hello to the lovely young woman that has taken her place.  Being a mother can really pull at the heartstrings....

Schoolbag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning

Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile

I watch her go with a surge of that well-known sadness

And I have to sit down for a while

The feeling that I'm losing her forever

And without really entering her world

I'm glad whenever I can share her laughter

That funny little girl

(Slipping through my fingers, ABBA)

Where are you going, my little one, little one,
Where are you going, my baby, my own?
Turn around and you're two,
Turn around and you're four,
Turn around and you're a young girl going out of my door.
Turn around, turn around,
Turn around and you're a young girl going out of my door.

(Turn Around, Harry Belafonte)

 

You're beautiful baby from the outside in.
Chase your dreams but always know the road that'll lead you home again.
Go on, take on this whole world.
But to me you know you'll always be, my little girl.

(My Little Girl, Tim McGraw)

In my daughter's eyes I am a hero
I am strong and wise and I know no fear
But the truth is plain to see
She was sent to rescue me
I see who I wanna be
In my daughter's eyes

In my daughter's eyes everyone is equal
Darkness turns to light and the
world is at peace
This miracle God gave to me gives me
strength when I am weak
I find reason to believe
In my daughter's eyes

And when she wraps her hand
around my finger
Oh it puts a smile in my heart
Everything becomes a little clearer
I realize what life is all about

It's hangin' on when your heart
has had enough
It's giving more when you feel like giving up
I've seen the light
It's in my daugter's eyes

In my daughter's eyes I can see the future
A reflection of who I am and what will be
Though she'll grow and someday leave
Maybe raise a family
When I'm gone I hope you see how happy
she made me
For I'll be there
In my daughter's eyes

(In my Daughter's Eyes, Martina McBride)

Andrew and Caitlin

Someday, some boy will come and ask me for your hand

But I won't say "yes" to him unless I know, he's the half

That makes you whole, he has a poet's soul, and the heart of a man's man...

(My Little Girl, Tim McGraw)

May God richly bless both of you!