The big RELEASE

When God gave me the word RELEASE this year, I saw two big things on the calendar for the 2020 year that would require openly releasing my only biological child into God's hands. A trip to South Africa without me, and a physical removal from my home to a college dorm at Dallas Baptist University. Both tore at my heart, while both gave me great excitement for my son. Both would happen very close in time to each other. One in mid-July, the other in mid-August.

For reasons God only knows, South Africa remains on hold. The team David so eagerly awaited serving together with one last time may or may not come back together, as they all drifted apart throughout the whole COVID pandemic. Seems God has more to do in their hearts before they go, and He is obviously working on the South African side, as well, preparing a harvest that only He can do. 

The second date on my calendar did come, though, and we successfully moved David into a dorm room at DBU this week. I thought I'd be a bit more emotional by now, so perhaps it hasn't really sunk in yet. But I'm so excited for him to be there, and it was definitely time. David is a fiercely independent child, and as he grew into a very mature young man, I saw the need for him to be able to sit under solid Christian teaching in a Christian school environment to wrestle through his deep thoughts and convictions on his own, to begin to develop his own worldview apart from his parents. The college years are critical, and I'm thankful for his choice in a Christian college to help shape him through these next years.

College looks a bit different now than it did just a year ago, with strict COVID protocol in place limiting the number of people in any location at a given time, including classes, chapel, the cafeteria, and even in the dorm. Everything will take on a more hybrid style, which makes me even more thankful for the laptop we invested in for him at Christmas last year. They have to wear masks inside any building with the exception of their own dorm room with their roommate. We are hoping and praying that there will not be any spread of the virus on campus so that neither he nor his roommate will have to come home to self-isolate. Thankfully, though, with everything being hybrid-nature and digital, it looks like even having to self-quarantine should not set them back for classes. 

About a year and 3 months ago, the transmission on David's truck went out, and he and his dad decided to take it as an opportunity to completely rebuild the truck, including completely switching out and upgrading the engine, the transmission, in addition to giving it a whole new look on the outside. They hoped to finish it all last summer, but the project ended up so big that it took until the very last minute of THIS summer to finish their project. They worked tirelessly on it, bonded a lot, and David learned so much about mechanics that will follow him for life. I don't know that there's ever been a boy more proud to take his truck to college with him. What a huge accomplishment for an 18 year old kid. So I start my pictures with the truck in progress because that's a big part of the story of his move-in-day.

They were still painting and putting on a few final touches that morning of August 19th, but they finally finished up and got the truck loaded to take to DBU. We decided to trailer it over there rather than take any chance of it not being highway ready yet. He'll just be driving it around town for now until it has a few miles on the new engine. 

My view as I drove behind the trucks with all of David's stuff in the back of my car. 

At DBU, getting ready to drive it off the trailer and up the hill toward his dorm.

I cannot tell you the emotion in seeing David drive this truck, after it's been sitting in a million pieces in the driveway for the last year and three months. It really runs!!! They really did accomplish their mission.

David and Kaden, 

getting ready to unpack and get settled into this new chapter in life.

 They're actually high school friends. They didn't spend much time together in high school and have rather different personalities, but they connected due to their very similar convictions in life. 

Ready with the essentials, at least:

Coffee, a comfy couch, TV, stocked fridges, snacks, and plenty of Mountain Dew

Their decorations match their convictions well. 

Back the Blue (David is incredibly patriotic), the Christian flag (Kaden is a worship leader), and the Cowboys (enough said). 

The same dorm where Juan David started out his first year, though David is on the bottom floor.

Possible job opportunity on campus? We'll see. At least there's no drive-thru.

And so it is. I left my boy at a city on a hill, one of the most beautiful places to visit in the DFW area. I miss him already, but I know it's time. And I'm so thankful for his opportunity to study at DBU. If I go missing one of these days, you'll know where to find me. Lol. Date nights with Mike eating Chick Fil-A on Sunset Terrace at DBU, perhaps with a quick visit to see David? Sounds like a good plan to me. Haha.

The view looked a little different on the way home, following an empty trailer. 

So many mixed emotions.

Little did I realize just how much God was going to have me release this year even before the big release of my son to college. In addition to learning how to live without David here so much, I've had to release everything I knew about teaching and am learning/creating a whole new system to teach my second graders both virtually and in-person as socially distanced as possible. I'm not afraid of the risk of bringing some of the kids back, and we'll make it a positive year no matter what. But the work upfront to get it all set into motion is quite overwhelming and time consuming pretty much recreating everything onto a digital format to meet the needs of all students, no matter where they are joining me from.

Then there's church. We're finally reopening after six months of meeting online. However, my precious Firewheel campus where I've served for the last 12 years has decided to cancel it's Saturday night service. Moving back to Sunday mornings is just not feasible for me, so we're headed back to the Rockwall campus where we started out, now 17 years ago. I'm both sad and excited, knowing that God led us to Firewheel to raise David. We're in a new chapter now, and God knows our needs as a couple. I have faith that He's got just the right Life Group and relationships waiting for us, though it is another release that I could never have seen coming.