As I’m wrapping up this weekend with my daughter before she returns for her final semester of college, my heart can’t help but be conflicted.  I’m so excited for her to be finishing up an amazing four years at her little university that has been such a growing place. But then there is the knowing that this will be our last Christmas break together, the last one where we get to just hang out for days on end.

Ali is my baby, my only girl, my princess, and now at 21, one of my closest friends.  Don’t get me wrong, I have a great relationship with my three wonderful sons.  They are my protectors, my go-to guys for advice on many matters, my friends. But there is a definite unique aspect to a mother-daughter relationship.  At times it makes me crazy, but more often it fills my heart with so much joy.

I’ve joked often that I was so grateful that I only had one daughter, and three boys, because daughters are so much more exhausting!  Ali shares her heart with me and as a result I feel deep when she’s hurting. My sons tend to give me sweeping overviews of the current state of affairs, sometimes blindsiding me with news that I didn’t see coming.  Both have their advantages and disadvantages!

When Ali started college back in the fall of 2014 we didn’t know all that would transpire during her four years.  She left with parents that were married, and now she has divorced parents.  She lived in a big family house in Celebration, Florida, and now she comes back to my cozy townhome.  She had a wonderful Aunt and Uncle in Omaha that adored her, and now they cheer her on from heaven. She had never traveled outside the USA, she has now been to ten countries.  She was just a sister when she left for college, but now she also holds the title of Aunt to her precious nephew.

We road tripped to North Carolina for Christmas a few weeks ago, and somewhere along the way our car ride turned into a trip down memory lane.  Ali started finding praise songs from her childhood and soon we were having an “old school gospel shake down”.  As often happens when Ali is around, it turned into a fun video that she posted on Instagram. I love the freedom in this video, I love our laughter, and it cracks me up how sometimes we were so in sync. It’s a wonderful little gift to my heart that I can watch when I miss her.

*Click on this link to share in our fun:  Christmas Roadtrip

I know as Ali embarks on “adulthood” she will thrive.  She will bloom wherever God plants her. As it is with all four of my children, I will be watching and praying from the sidelines.  I have a feeling I will have to board a plane to find her, and perhaps even travel across an ocean or two. But I will blow wind into her adventurous sails and let life take her where she needs to go.

Ali and her proud momma…