#LAbritheSenior

During the 26th week of my first pregnancy I was working very hard at my grown up job when I started to experience extreme back pain. I called my doctor fully expecting him to tell me just to suck it up and he would see me the next day at my scheduled appointment. An hour later I was lying in labor and delivery being told I was in pre-term labor and the inability to stop said labor would mean a 50% chance of survival for my child.

That was the moment. The exact moment I associated the tiny kicks with my new reality called motherhood. The moment my slightly rounded belly ceased to be a new and exciting stage of life and began to establish itself as an entire section of my heart. From that moment until now my existence has been compromised. I no longer thought in terms of most convenient, most comfortable or primary personal preference. There was always an X factor and while we were yet to realize it, her name was Emma.

Emma is as witty as she is beautiful. She is so confident! There's no need for primping. Even an evening under bright stage lights where she will step forward to sing a solo does not mandate make-up or the use of a curling iron. Emma knows what she wants and isn't afraid to go for her goal with gusto. I'm not surprised Emma L'Abri Jones tried to enter the world two and a half months early. She's been grabbing the world by the ear and digging for her oyster all in one fair swoop for over 17 years.  If I attempted to list all her achievements and accomplishments my readers would tire of her excellence and miss the most important aspects of Emma. Let's just say, she's really smart. 

Emma loves. She loves life, her Lord and people. She cherishes her friends like few I've seen before. The more her friends have genuine needs the more she pours out. Her passion for justice is unparalleled. When she envisions a life's work it is the unlovable, the underserved, the needy and mentally ill she hopes to understand. 

As I think back and remember the beautiful tiny baby, adorable little girl with the tiny voice that never stopped, the pre-teen with Hanna Montana sunglasses/purse/clothes/lamp, the teenager who hated us for making her move to GA but walked into that ginormous building that housed Ridgeland High School as if she owned the place, I realize she is one of my greatest sources of pride. The pride Scott and Seth Avett sing about "But not like the kind in the Bible that turns you bad." She is the truest form of determination I have ever seen. She MAKES things happen. Most of her wildest dreams come true because she demands that they be realized. And when they don't, she has a back up plan.  I see in her a fantastic, mysterious combination of myself and Andy filtered through the love and conviction of a gracious God. 

These are the things I see. There are so many things about Emma that I miss as exceptional because to me...they're just the characteristics that make her my L'Abri. I'm so excited for her to meet new people who will see these eccentricities, point them out and show her even more that makes her exceptional. I pray she finds influences that help her dissect the ways my selfishness, pride and personal agenda have creeped into my parenting. 

Thursday, May 19th, three months before she moves into a dorm room at Furman University, she will walk across a stage. I will clap and think a thought I've thought so many times before. I am so proud of my baby girl. I'm so thankful for the young woman God has created her to be and for her on going pursuit of holiness. In so many ways, I want to be more like her.

"Sandy" with her Winston after Grease- Spring 2015

Last weekend Emma was Belle for Ridgeland High School's performance of Beauty and the Beast. I kept picturing her as a little girl in her yellow Belle dress and hearing her 3 year old voice saying "Look Mama, I Belle! I pretty Mama?"

A Happy Sad

On Mondays I have lunch with Ellie. She might call me her mentor but much of the time during our weekly lunch dates I'm griping about this or that and she speaks into my life with wisdom beyond her years. As she prayed for me last week I was flooded with the sad reality that I won't see her for months.  As she thanked God for me and cried out to God on my behalf I felt so blessed I couldn't keep the tears from sliding down my cheeks. I feel so blessed to know her and so thankful that our weekly lunch dates will continue with the next school year.

Next Sunday one of my lunch ladies is going to put on a beautiful dress, walk down an aisle and make very significant promises to this guy named Jack. Over two years I've watched Andrea fall more deeply in love and make plans to marry him and more recently have had the privilege of listening to all the plans as they formulated for this most special of days. It's heart wrenching that I won't be there to watch it all unfold.

Instead, I'll be watching another's dreams come true. Since she was 18 months old Emma L'Abri has loved Beauty and the Beast. From the first time she watched Belle climb over that grassy hill singing about a little town, Emma resonated with the dark haired animation and her ability to find life like dreamy escapades in the pages of a book. I can close my eyes and easily recall vivid memories of my daughter dancing around multiple living rooms over the span of a childhood pretending to be Belle. The happiest you will ever see a mom is watching their child's wildest dreams come true! Next weekend, I get to be that joy filled mom.

Sometimes the saddest things in this life are the result of so much happiness. Tears flow when Ellie prays for me because I'm humbled by how she cares for me and allows me to truly know her. Andrea and Emma have wonderful, amazing events going on at the same time in different places. I'd give anything to be at both but being on this side of heaven I am limited by time and space. God's sweetest blessings meet the imperfection of this post-Eden world where time and space conflict.

Today I experienced a similar contrast of emotion as my friends walked across a stage signifying great achievement coupled with the fact that they are moving on. What a privilege to stand in my slippered feet day after day and pour out the gracious, hope filled love God has poured into me. When my "work" day is done I drive down a beautiful mountain to these three exceptional humans I get to raise and their father who happens to be my favorite person on the planet. Even my sad is caused by so much happy.

I don't like to brag but the guy in the center is my work study student of two years and is next year's Student Body President. Tried to get him to run the country but he just doesn't have time.