This has been the busiest December I can remember in forever. In addition to the usual holiday insanity, we had to get our oldest son, R1, ready to transfer to an out-of-state university. Instead of making art and working on my blog/website, I just soaked up and treasured the time we had left with him at home. This has been a very bittersweet time for me. I am sad to see my son leave, but I am so proud of the man he has become and I am happy that he has a plan for his education and career and is not afraid to follow it wherever God leads him. Before I became pregnant with R1 I dealt with years of infertility and despaired of ever having any children. Much like Hannah in the Bible, I resolved that if I ever was blessed with a child that I would always remember he was a gift on loan from God and to raise him for the Lord. I am overjoyed to see that R1 chose a Christian university and that he wants to go into digital media and film studies with the intention of serving God and leading others to Him. It is also a pleasure to watch our other three children, whom we also dedicated to God, as they work out what they feel God is calling them to do with their lives.
It seems that all along, from searching for a college to actually getting R1 there, we kept running into problems to overcome. Our final challenge came the night we were supposed to be driving up to move R1 into his dorm. Blowing snow caused white-out conditions and closed the highways in Iowa and southern Minnesota. We waited and watched road condition reports and the route finally started to clear a few hours after R1 was supposed to report for orientation. We piled in our vehicles and made it to the college nine hours later, just after all the offices had closed. Luckily, some wonderful students and RAs were able to get R1 a temporary ID and his room key to move in.
It was hard to leave R1 and drive away, but I was truly comforted by the final picture I had of him. R1 was standing in front of his dorm backlit by the lights inside and outside of the building- they seemed to be wrapping him and flooding him with God’s light and love and I knew he was where he was supposed to be.
Anyway, to make a long story short (too late) now that we have R1 off to school, and the rest of the family settled in it is time to get back to making art!!!!
Remember, faith works!!
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