Houston, We Have Liftoff!

 The day we moved Golda out of the house was exciting.  I was looking forward to it all week.  Scott wanted to go with, but opted to pay a visit to Golda later that weekend and get her odds and ends all tied up, rather than miss a day of work to go with me.  Golda and I took Araceli along.   She is fun and she's a good helper and stylist for the room.  Golda loaded up all her belongings in G-Rex and we hit the road, all three of us in the front seat and the back piled to the ceiling with stuff.

Once there, the honors program had tons of people waiting to help and facilitate the moving.  One guy helped us unload the car into grocery carts and another guy helped put it all in the apartment.  Easy!  If you want to know the truth, though, the apartment was not the cleanest.  Not dirty, just grungy.  Araceli got right to work and thoroughly cleaned the kitchen while I tackled the bathroom and Golda attempted to organize her room while thinking, "What have I done?  I left a spacious home with a huge, beautiful room and moved into this dump!"  She was shell shocked.  It took a couple of hours before things started looking up.  Golda was optimistic, but it took some effort!

This is Gentry, Golda's roommate who went to Davis.  They knew each other a little before being put together as roommates.  Golda was excited to be with Gentry.

And here we have the pillow Golda picked out, the sheets and lights we bought with Scott back in June, and the most important item, the blanket Michelle Fitzgerald made for Golda.  It's perfect, and we planned the whole room around it.

We arrived at the dorm at 10, and I thought I would for sure be home by 3.  Not even close.  The first two hours were cleaning, then there was a lunch provided in a parking lot for all the honors students to get to know each other.  The food was truly awful, it was hot, and the sprinklers went on while people were sitting on the grass.  Epic fail.  It was kinda depressing, and the honors crowd, you know, they're just a tiny bit nerdy.  Having them all in one parking lot eating raw hot dogs and stale cookies, looking like baby deer in the headlights, it was too much.  After that, Golda had meetings, and Araceli and I went to Walmart to get some food, stuff for the bathroom and look for a comforter.  It's unbelievable, but we moved Golda to college without one single item of food, besides Michelle's cookies.  When we saw the others moving in boxes of foodstuffs, it was like, "Oh ya. Sustenance.  You'll probably need something to eat this semester."

Gentry's parents and I coordinated on the bathroom at Walmart, and it turned out cute.  Yellow and blue.  We met up with Golda at 4, but the dorm room wasn't really complete, and it didn't seem like it was time to leave.  We went to Target and finally found a white comforter, then grabbed dinner at Wendy's.  I don't know how the day went by so quickly, but Golda finally dropped Araceli and me off at the Trax station at 7 and we rode the train home.  She had looked around her dorm room and said, "Wow.  Here I am with a whole new life...with no family...or food.  When IS the next dinner at Grandma's or Coco's?"  I'm not sure Golda wanted us to leave, but she was also looking forward to getting settled in.  The room was charming and adorable, and it turned out just how Golda had envisioned it, and it was time to own it.

Be careful what you ask for, though, right?  An hour later, she texted, "I'm ALL ALONE here!"  Her roommates had gone and it was quiet, something that is a rare experience for a girl who's the oldest of seven!  I told her to enjoy it and get used to focusing on herself, without the responsibility of a family including child care, cooking and chores.  It will be an adjustment, but this time in Golda's life is for her.

As lonely as it was for Golda being all alone, I daresay it was lonelier for Scott and me at home, despite the presence of the other 6 kids.  There is a big hole where Golda's spirit and energy were, and it makes everything seem unnervingly quiet, even when it's not really.  I am thrilled that Golda is living on her own, but I'm not exactly thrilled to have only 6 kids here.  I liked having 7.  All in all, it's wonderful, it's an exciting new chapter in our lives, and I wouldn't have it any other way.  Golda is good at navigating her life through prayer and hard work.  Whatever is in store for her, she will discover it and conquer it, I have no doubt, and I'm confident that she will always be where the Lord wants her.

I don't know how to describe my feeling on launching an adult who used to be our kid.  But when she turned 18, I felt liberated.  Like whatever she does from here on out is on her, not on us.  She is an adult and now her decisions reflect on her, not me.  She is her own person!  I'm free!

Little did I know, Golda felt the exact same way about me!  I was doing something, I can't remember what, probably wearing a dumb outfit or something, and Golda said, "Mom, I'm 18 now.  I don't have to worry about what you do!"  I love it!  I laughed and said, "That's exactly how I feel!"  It's liberating to feel like two adults who can be friends and accept each other more easily, having no real responsibility for how the other one acts.  I was just so interested to find out that it goes both ways!

Needs improvement. definitely.  A couple days later, Scott and Golda went down with some big art and stuff for the walls.