It is a difficult thing to process when you have conflicting feelings trying to overwhelm your senses. Being very excited for my oldest daughter to be going to South Africa to do mission work makes me very proud. And the immediate panic I experienced as I hugged her for the last time for 6 weeks and told her I was proud of her; it took my breath away. It literally felt like my heart was going to pound out of my chest while I was driving to work. We have went 6 weeks without seeing each other before, but I also knew she was less than an hour away, and always a text message away. Now I will be relying on the group’s blog postings to keep me up to date on how my daughter is doing.

Am I concerned for her safety? Of course. I am concerned for her safety when she is on her college campus where she is going to start her 4th and final year in the fall. I am always concerned; the location does not matter.

As the newness of this situation wears off, and I get settled in to the idea of keeping tabs on my daughter via the internet, she will be on her way back and I know it will feel like she never left.

I really am excited for this amazing opportunity she has. I could never even begin to explain how proud of her I am, to her or anyone else. She takes opportunities as they present themselves, even if it is new or frightening. She creates opportunities for herself to grow as a young woman in a fast-paced-always-changing world.

She will change lives, and her and I both know that she can change the world, even if it is one person at a time.