Day 1, Wednesday July 2nd

 Well it finally came, the day for Emma to fly to France.  Neither she nor I slept well last night.  For me it was more anxiety, for her I think she was just so excited.  She was in really great spirits all day-which is not normal when she doesn't get much sleep. 

We were all packed, ready to go except for her raincoat that we ordered online and just got today.  I opened the package and pulled it out and instantly knew "this is so not a raincoat".  The material didn't feel like it would repel water at all.  We tried pouring water on it and it soaked right through. The reason I bought it online was because I searched high and low for one and couldn't find one.  I got on the phone and started calling every store at Jordan landing.  Finally we found an XS in womens at the Nike store so we ran and got that.  It's a little big but will work.  That caused a little stress but then we were set and ready to go.

At 1:30 the whole family piled in the car and headed to the airport.  My feelings for this trip kept going back and forth all day long.  One minute I was good with it and was just so excited for her, and the next I was fighting back tears with all the fears of things that could go wrong.  Before we left for the airport, Emma told me, "don't cry, because if you do, I will." I told her I would try and I did try really hard.  I grabbed half of a Kleenex box and put it in my purse just in case.  Surprisingly, I was able to keep it to a minimum.  It sure helped to see her excited and not clingy.  Neither of us cried saying goodbye and when she left with the group, she didn't even look back.

 

 
It didn't hit me till I was going to bed and found a note under my pillow saying thank you for making her dreams come true and that Derrel and I are the best parents in the world.  THAT'S when I lost it.