The Road Not Taken

This will be one of the few weekends that I don't post a kid's craft or something that I tried to bake.  I spent the weekend at Atlantic Beach, NC coordinating a work conference for about 100 people.  I figured why let the free hotel room go to waste and invited my mom to come along and hang out with my oldest daughter Emily.  Someone should enjoy the ocean since I wouldn't be able to!  For some reason it really hit me this weekend how quickly three years have passed.  She is so grown up and completely has a personality of her own.  All parents worry about their children making the right decisions in life, enjoying life to the fullest, learning disciple, keeping them safe but still letting them be a kid, etc and I am no exception.  I was just struck with the sheer magnitude of it all.  What if one decision I make for her while she is young shapes her entire future?  What if I don't start her in that toddler dance program and I ruin her chances of dancing in the New York Ballet.  Has she heard me yell at her father too much, did she catch too many kissing scenes on television when we were flipping channels, what if, what if, what if.  Tonight she came into Lindsay's room while I was rocking her and gave me a kiss and told me she loved me.  I wonder how many more years I will have of this sweet innocence before she wants nothing to do with me and thinks that whatever I say is always wrong.  One of my favorite poems in high school was The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.

"I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

I want her to take the road less traveled.  I want her to be a leader and not a follower.  To go after her heart no matter what the popular opinion is, even if that includes mine.  When I took these pictures of her  (one this weekend and one at the beginning of the summer), this poem immediately came to mind.  I guess I just have to let go and let God stay in control and enjoy the ride.