Puppies and Peru

So, today I took my youngest daughter, Becky, to the airport. She is 15 years old and going on her first mission trip to Peru. She will be there 10 days ministering to the children that live and work in the garbage dump. I am so proud of her, and yet it is not easy to let her go.

I dropped her off at the airport this morning at 4:30 a.m. I was fighting back tears the whole trip there....I masked my sadness by loud laughter.....it's one of my cooping mechanisms. As she gathered up her bags, I saw my little Becky, my 2 year old Becky with big blue eyes and beautiful blond ringlets and a big smile on her face. That was the Becky that I saw picking up her bags to go into the airport. She came over to me and hugged me deeply.....and I breathed her into me.

You know how puppies have a puppy smell....a very unique and wonderful smell....and babies have a baby smell.....a very unique and wonderful smell. It's smell of youth and of innocence and of wonder.....well.....I've never noticed when that smell of a puppy disappears....it's not like one day you just wake up and your puppy has lost that smell. It happens slowly over time...and it is so gradual that you don't even notice it. BUT I can tell you when my daughter, Becky, lost her baby smell...the smell of youth and innocence....the smell of me needing to protect and provide for her....it was this morning at 4:30 am. I breathed her into me and her essence was the same, but that smell of youth was gone....and now I smelled the essence of my daughter, the beautiful young woman that she has become. The beautiful young woman who is willing to leave the comforts of home and travel to a foreign land to be the love of Jesus with children who are lice ridden and living in a garbage dump. I love her smell....but I am sad and struggling because I know that I have to let her go....I have to let her be that young woman....and I can't hold her back and I can't slap baby lotion on her and take her home....I have to let her go out into the protection of her heavenly Father.

I breath her in deeply and we hug for a long time. She walks away....getting a few feet and she looks back at me and drops her suitcases and returns for another long hug....I know my Becky and she knew that I needed that....that is her sweet heart....always looking out for others.

Yes, she has grown into a fine young woman and I am so proud of her.