Perspectives: Time To Say Goodbye

Tuesday was an extremely hectic day. Perhaps it was good that there were more things to do than there was time to do them so we would not spend a lot of time feeling sad about the whole situation of leaving our firstborn behind.

We had an early start as the first item on the agenda was the 7:30 a.m. college orientation followed by an 8:30 chapel service. Next there were two tests to take; one for English and another for Bible. After that we ran to Wal-Mart (again) and had lunch at McDonald's. The afternoon consisted of a meeting for all the students who will be working on campus and another orientation. Mixed in was getting a post office box key, a laundry card, an ID card, two trips to the finance office and then filling out forms for her on-campus job and lastly, purchasing her textbooks (ouch).

Perhaps the most important item of the day was the registering for classes. Morgan was able to get all but one of the classes she wanted. Each day, she will have a 7:30 a.m. class. and on three days out of the week, she will be finished with all her classes before chapel.

Here's her schedule:
MWF
7:30 Old Testament Survey
8:30 English 101
9:30 Computer Lab (Mon & Wed only)
10:30 Chapel

On Wednesday and Friday she will have a cooking class from 11:30-1:00

Tuesday & Thursday
7:30 Speech
8:30 Personal Evangelism

Wednesday will be her toughest day for classes as she will have both the cooking and computer class on the same day with church services at night. At the present, Morgan is carrying 15 credit hours but there still may be additional credits earned if she is able to get violin lessons.

Morgan was fortunate to get an "on campus" job and will be working two or three hours a day doing cleaning and maintenance. She does not yet know what her specific job will be but she is excited to have the opportunity to help her parents out on her school bill. Just those few hours each day are going to reduce her monthly tuition payments by one third. She does not mind the custodial aspect since she is used to that kind of work and it will give her some physical activity away from the rigors of sitting in class and studying. It might be nice over the course of her college life to work in some of the ministry offices directly to improve her ministry training but she likes what she has to start out.

As I said, we were so busy following Morgan and helping her any way that we could, when we finally left the school, there was not a lot of time to have a lingering departure. Just quick hugs and kisses and we walked away. I could have cried all the way to the car and all the way home but the Lord has given all of us great peace that this is His will and we have embraced the reality that the time has come for this new chapter to begin for us all.

We thank the Lord for a safe trip home and those who looked after our pets and our home in our absence. We arrived at our house at 11:30 at night. The jet stream was not in our favor this time so it took us seven hours to make it home. I will post one more blog on Wednesday for a few concluding thoughts about this entire experience. Please keep Morgan in your prayers.