{"id":209,"date":"2010-08-19T07:28:41","date_gmt":"2010-08-19T13:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/jhpeterson\/?p=209"},"modified":"2010-08-19T07:28:41","modified_gmt":"2010-08-19T13:28:41","slug":"saying-goodbye-to-childhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/jhpeterson\/saying-goodbye-to-childhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Saying Goodbye to childhood"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just over a week ago I said &#8220;goodbye&#8221; to our eldest child, Miles, as he headed off to college in Colorado. Hydi went with him to help him get settled and will be back after a couple weeks. So she is probably experiencing a very different sort of farewell. For me it has been an interesting mix of emotions.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Gratitude: Children are a blessing! We were given the privilege of raising Miles and living with him for just over 19 years. It&#8217;s been fun to watch him grow up. He has added so much to our lives.<\/li>\n<li>Fear: Yup&#8230; there&#8217;s no denying it. Some how I just can&#8217;t keep from worrying a bit. It&#8217;s a big, bad world out there and I hope and pray for the best for him. I pray that he will be blessed with a good situation at college, and that he will make wise choices&#8230; but it doesn&#8217;t stop me from wondering, &#8220;what if?&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Excitement: This is probably what Miles is feeling the most right now, and we share it as well. The future is wide open, and our &#8220;little boy&#8221; is fast learning what it is to be a man.<\/li>\n<li>Sadness: I already miss him. Today I was cleaning some of his stuff out of his room so Eli can move in. Old photos, sports trophies and medals&#8230; the tears were flowing as I held each item in my hand.<\/li>\n<li>Laughter: When I think back to my own experience leaving home and how carefree I was back then I can&#8217;t help but laugh at myself taking Miles&#8217; departure so seriously. Good grief! This whole post is starting to sound like an obituary! Maybe it&#8217;s just a &#8220;first child&#8221; thing and I won&#8217;t get so bent out of shape the next time. Then again, in two years it&#8217;s going to be my darling little girl going out into the big bad world. Shoot&#8230; I&#8217;m already getting worried!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/jhpeterson?moderation_action=report_form&#038;object_type=post&#038;object_id=209&#038;width=250&#038;height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just over a week ago I said &#8220;goodbye&#8221; to our eldest child, Miles, as he headed off to college in Colorado. Hydi went with him to help him get settled and will be back after a couple weeks. So she is probably experiencing a very different sort of farewell. For me it has been an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Saying Goodbye to childhood - Jim and Hydi Peterson<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/jhpeterson\/saying-goodbye-to-childhood\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Saying Goodbye to childhood - Jim and Hydi Peterson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just over a week ago I said &#8220;goodbye&#8221; to our eldest child, Miles, as he headed off to college in Colorado. 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