Our oldest is off to college

We left out early Wednesday to take our oldest and drop her off to school. I had been talking to her about how she felt about it even at her going away party the weekend before. She kept saying it hadn't hit her yet. That morning as we loaded her stuff into our cars, I could see it was beginning to set in it was really happening.

When we got up to her room, they had already unloaded her mom's car. She had chosen her area, and all her roommates were there. We had come with the most people. Her dad and me. Her mom and stepdad and her sister. The room was crowded. We unloaded what we brought and headed down for everyone to eat.

I told Anna I would go with her to pick up her art supplies. It was about a five-minute walk, so we just walked over. As we headed over you seen the campus area turned right back into the neighborhood quickly. I told her I didn't want her walking by herself. Make sure she had a buddy with her. We got to the art supply store, and she had already preordered her stuff. We just got in line and gave her name; she picked it up.

This stuff was heavy I'm glad I came with her no way she would be able to carry it alone. She still had to take it to her classroom which wasn't open yet and also bring a stool. Our baby is going to be an architect. Me and her mom discussed why they wouldn't have let us drop it off while we were there. Anyway, we got it up to the room. We headed to Walmart to get the final things she needed.

As soon as we got in there Eric was looking for t-shirts to rep her college. He found a few but a manager directed us to a whole aisle of them. He hit the motherload. He got one for everybody. We ran back into them getting snacks. Patience was a little salty Anna was getting everything she wanted. I told her she was going to have someone constantly still shopping for her. It didn't make much of difference to her.

We headed to check out and Anna wanted to get one last outfit. I went with her to pick it out. The top she wanted they didn't have in her size. She was almost tempted to get it anyway. I found er size in a different color. It worked out. Her mom called saying they were next in line. We headed over and got everything loaded in the car.

We were on our last ride together. The whole family minus her stepdad. This is how it started, and we were dropping her off to her new chapter. We unloaded the haul into her room all her roommates were gone. We took pictures, prayed, and said our goodbyes. She asked, "you guys are really leaving me here?" It was finally hitting her, she would be doing this on her own.

She walked us down to the car. She walked with her mom as we headed across the street to the store. I know that goodbye was hard for her. I seen it all over her face as she met us at the store. I looked at pillows and nails with her, as Eric finished up. As we walked to the car the walk seemed so long. Were we really going to leave her. We were she was all grown up and starting a new book where she didn't need us like before.

Her dad hugged her, and she joked about him trying not to cry. As I went to hug her tears started streaming down, I wasn't ready. I told her to call us for anything. Even if she just felt lonely. She recorded as we waved goodbye. She really grew up and was living in another city. We had a two-hour drive back without her. She is going to do great. I can't wait to hear about all her new experiences, and her first semester. We will probably call every day.