Our son, Jeremy Elliott, got his Ph.D. yesterday ... check.Kristen took her Boards to be a Nurse and anxiously waits on the results ... check.
Chelsea graduates with her Masters and has started work at Emory University teaching Art Therapy to Autistic children ... check.
Maddie is a freshman at St. Vincent's Academy and working hard to make the Cross Country team ... check.
Laurel started Stem Academy, has no textbooks or homework, because of the I-Pad she's given as a student and the child wakes in the middle of the night ready to go to school ... check.
Cassidy excels at Mindcraft ... actually she's a straight A third grade student ... and though she still watches the Disney Network ... check.
You want so much for your kids it hurts.
When they deliver and actualize those wants ...well ... you're proud as Hell ... and if you're like me ... you cry like a baby.
Many years ago, Terry Ball and I sit on the back deck talking about work and things ... and I say, "I just want to get my kids through school ... and give them their lives."
Terry always thinks before he answers.
It's a long moment of silence ... on a warm night ... a billion stars in a black sky ... waves crashing the shore ... Channel markers blinking in the distance.
"You will," he finally says.
In an intense moment of doubt, with little money and lots of obligations, I've never forgotten his assurance.
Today I'm pretty damn happy about it all.
We've successfully given three their lives which they're making their own ... and now working hard on the next three.
The thing I've learned is ... it's their lives to live.
Not mine.
They'll do with it what they will.
Our job is to hope for the best, make the investments we can ... mostly love I think ... and watch what they do.
But when the return on the investment hits ... and you see what they've done ... you know you're leaving the world a better place than you found.
It doesn't get any better than that.
