Looking Forward to a New Year
They were just piled on the bottom of our daughter's closet. Backpacks! Oh, there wasn't just one backpack. No, Jennifer had 5 backpacks tucked away in her room. As she was packing for her soon-to-be first year of college, I realized Jennifer had saved every backpack she had ever used since she was in kindergarten. That's when it hit me. For the first time in 18 years, Jennifer will be living 5 hours away from us. I've known this day was coming for some time. I suppose all parents know that their kids are growing up and will eventually "leave the nest," but the backpacks seemed to illustrate this change in dramatic fashion for me. They made such an impression that I asked to take them out of her closet so I could take a picture of them. The pack on the left was her kindergarten pack which she used it for several years. It is adorned with dragonflies, and I know we have a "first day" picture of her wearing it. In fact, we have th