Guest Post : The Dance of Release

First of all, I need to tell you about this amazing woman who wrote this post. She is absolutely inspiring, as is her husband. They are the proud parents to four beautiful children, one is now an angel in heaven. Thru her blog I have come to love this family, laugh with them and cry with them. Reading thru each post, watching as they slowly lost their beautiful son Gavin, http://www.gavinowens.com/p/gavins-life-death.html      and watching their beautiful daughter Madison grow into a strong young woman. The most beautiful thing happened to this family after they lost Gavin, they felt led to adopt two beautiful children who were disabled, and these beautiful kids just shine now! http://www.gavinowens.com/p/our-adoption-story.html
Please join me in reading this blog post that Karen wrote not to long ago, it touched my heart, and I know that as parents, you will appreciate this post. I am blessed that Karen has given me permission to repost it here on LDS Parenting. Please visit her blog at www.gavinowens.com you will be blessed! Without further ado, here is the post, titled : The Dance of Release


{The Dance of Release}

Parenting is a journey like no other. You can never fully plan out your parenting journey. It always makes me chuckle listening to new parents talk and stress over their birth plan and listen to their already firmed up views on parenting and discipline -- they really have no clue about what is about to totally rock their world and ways of thinking. Once we as parents figure our children out -- perfect our skills and our ability to meet all our children's needs, they change, their needs change and what once was a full proof plan completely blows up in our face.

I have found the most challenging part of parenting is excepting the fact that my job as a mother is not only to hold tight but also to release. So very difficult. I try to think of it as this amazing beautiful dance, a dance between parent and child. The first thing you notice in a dance between two people is they way they hold each other -- the way the move together. They glide across the floor playing off even the smallest of their partner's movements. But here the thing, what makes a dance good is not only the way they hold each other but also the way they release. Just think about it.

This week we sent our little girl to preschool. I never thought this day would come for Angela. I remember when we first brought her home I never really was able to picture what her future would be like, what her abilities and strengths would become. She was so deeply involved in self stimulating behavior that it was hard to even imagine her interacting with the world around her.

So yesterday as I walked her into that preschool building my mommie heart wanted to hold her so very tight but my soul knew that we have come to this time in our beautiful dance -- a time to release. It is time to trust that just like I, her mother, loves her with the deepest of human love, that God loves my little girl even deeper and is waiting to help my baby twirl in her own amazing little dance until it is time to rejoin my arms once again.

She is ready. She has been practicing her dance moves for two amazing years -- and trust me, this girl has some sweet moves. I'm so excited for her to shine, grow and experience all that life has to offer. Sure there are risks, but without risk there is no adventure and without adventure we can only taste just a small portion of the amazing life God has for us, for our children.

It's time to dance.

It's time to release.

It's time to watch my baby girl twirl.