Fly Away, Little Bird

This morning I saw Katie off on the first leg of her journey to Ireland. As I write this, she is winging her way to Newark, NJ where she will have a five-hour layover before taking off for Shannon and then Limerick.
We have known she was going to study abroad for 9 months now, so there has been a lot of time to get used to the idea. However, it didn't start seeming real until the past few days--days that were stressful, "crisis"-filled, and loaded with last-minute travel advice for Katie from the parental units. She did more than her share of eye-rolling, I'm sure.
We happened to see the movie "Taken" on HBO, which was a second viewing for all 3 of us. It stars Liam Neeson as a CIA agent whose daughter talks her parents into letting her take a trip to Paris with her best friend--when she's really planning to follow the band U2 around Europe on their concert tour. She ends up being kidnapped, drugged, and sold into the sex trade. Neeson, of course, heads to France and does some major butt-kicking until finally rescuing her before anything really bad happens. At the end, Fred and I looked pointedly at Katie, hoping she'd absorbed the life lessons in the film: don't lie to your parents, don't trust strangers, use good judgment. She looked back at us and said, "If that happens to me, I'm screwed."
Fred left early Thursday morning for Florida, so he said his goodbyes Wednesday night, again giving her a list of dos and don'ts as she sighed heavily and nodded. That night the WORST (to her) happened: her laptop came down with a bad virus. "What are we going to do?" she wailed. "I leave on Monday!!" Trying my best to be the voice of reason, I told her we'd get it fixed on Friday, and if worse came to worst she could take my computer with her; getting so bent out of shape over problems that are "fixable" isn't the best reaction. She should save her meltdowns for bigger things. (Like losing her passport!)
On Friday we took the computer in and had several hours of shopping and errands to run. The pharmacy gave us trouble over dispensing multiple months' worth of medications, even though the insurance company okayed it, so we had another hassle to deal with. Katie was getting fed up with my shopping suggestions, and I was getting fed up with her attitude. Both of us were grappling with the suddenly imminent idea that we wouldn't see each other for 4 months and would be 4000 miles apart.
The computer got fixed. The pharmacist reversed course and gave us all the prescriptions she needed. We had a nice dinner together after getting through a difficult day.
Last night after we got into our beds at our friends Paul and Lauri's in Eau Claire, I gave in to the emotion and the tears came. It didn't take much and Katie was crying, too. With that out of our systems, I figured we'd be good to go this morning at the shuttle. As I hugged her one last time, the driver asked, "So where are you going, young lady?" "Ireland," she croaked out as she struggled not to cry. And then she was off to begin her adventure.
We raise our kids with the intention of them becoming independent and leaving the nest, but that doesn't make it easier when it actually happens. However, I will be visiting Katie in Limerick, probably around her 21st birthday in April. (Flights for St. Patrick's Day are already booked!) And I'm sure she will be happy to know that I'll have 3 months' worth of motherly wisdom stored up for her when I get there.
Have a wonderful time, sweetie! We love you!!