First Day of Preschool

Sophia and I have both been looking forward to this day for most of 2010, and I didn't break down in tears as I sent my three-year-old off, without a hitch, to way-more-fun-than-she'd-be-having-with-me. But it did get me thinking about a paradox of parenthood. Some days are interminable; it seems that bedtime will never come. While, at the same time, you blink and more than three years have gone.

The part that scares me about this new phase in Sophia's life is that I'm not there to protect her. I'm leaving her with people I don't really know, and I don't know what's happening to her during those three hours. Her report of the morning's activities was very upbeat, so I'm sure everything was fine, but as I made my way to Bible study at my church with only one child, I was keenly aware that I must leave Sophia's welfare in God's hands--as it always is anyway.