CBU drop-off

Greg, Kari, and I flew down to CA on Thursday afternoon to take Kari to California Baptist University. We spent the night at a nearby hotel, and moved her in Friday morning. It was a day fraught with emotion, and it was swelteringly HOT with a high of 106 degrees. The morning did not start out well. We had just parked near her dorm and were walking to the event center to get her signed in, and Kari said, "I don't want to be here!" As you can imagine, those were not words we wanted to hear in that moment, and I got mad. I started lecturing, and we had some very tense moments as she checked in and got her room key. When we were back to the car and starting to unload, the move-in/welcoming crew showed up, and the first person we saw was a friendly, familiar face from home--Nathan Amadio! He was part of the welcoming crew working that weekend. His smile and warm greeting was a blessing and a gift from God in that moment. Kari and I went in and started unpacking. We had a little heart-to-heart about what she said earlier. I asked if she really meant that she didn't want to be there, or if she was just scared and uncomfortable. She said it was the later. We hugged and were okay once again. Kylee showed up shortly after that, and we were busy helping them get their room set up and garbage and boxes taken out. We took a trip to Target for some things they needed and then walked around campus for a bit. We visited Hudson's room and met his roommate, Zack, and explored the campus a bit, taking advantage of the "free" iced coffee, ice cream, and snacks. 

Freshman orientation for students and parents in the events center was the last event of the day. We heard from the president, the dean of students, the athletic director, and the music director, complete with band and cheerleaders. Greg and I loved it and felt reassured, listening to all they had to say, that this was a great place for our daughter to be. Kari did not enjoy it (too loud, too much), and we had more moments of frustration with her attitude. Thankfully, that was not our parting moment. We went and had dinner at The Habit on campus, which was fun, and then said our good-byes in front of her dorm. Hugging her and walking away with her standing on the curb all by herself was absolute torture. I sobbed all the way back to the hotel. I was still crying as we checked in. We ran into the Zeigler's (Zech's parents and Tiffany's sister and her husband), and Tennille and I hugged and commiserated in the hallway. "Isn't it awful?! This is just horrible!" The Pates, Zeiglers, Langleys and McLaughlins were all stayed at the same hotel as us, and we met up in the hot tub to decompress, recover, and to talk about our big Disney day. We weren't crying anymore by the time we got in the hot tub. :)