Last Thursday my oldest child left for college. He is my oldest but I still call him my baby because all of my children are my babies in a sense. It was just a mere 18 years ago this summer that I was pregnant with him, working at my job as laboratory assistant to a med school professor at the Univ. of Utah. I remember so well counting down the days until I could quit my job and be a stay-at-home mom. Two weeks before the due date, in early September of 1993, I left the job, never to come back, on purpose. I was so looking forward to being a mom! How completely my life changed when I gave birth to him less than three weeks later

 

.This baby is almost 18 and off to college.

 

I am feeling rather melancholy. I am so happy that he wants to go to college and is physically and mentally able to and won a scholarship to pay for his tuition, but I am sad that we have reached the end of an era. The era of his childhood. He’s not quite 18, but since he’s out living on his own, paying for his rent with money that he has saved up, his childhood is over. No longer are all my children at home. My toddler who is not quite 2 will grow up without his big brother at home. I’ve heard stories about this from other families but never experienced it myself since the family I grew up in was closer in age: five kids in nine years. I was in the middle and remember my brothers leaving on missions when I was in junior high and high school.

 

Our last family trip with Valor at home.

 

It was so weird to help him pack, make a shopping list, give him a hug and then wave good bye as he drove away. We took lots of photos first and had a special treat of ice cream for dessert. He still has braces on and it only made sense to let him keep the car so he can drive back and forth for braces treatment. It’s only four hours one way! That’s not too bad. We looked in to getting him transferred to an ortho down there but the one we talked to wanted $500 just to take the braces off! We are paid in full for all the braces up here so that didn’t make sense. Maybe God planned it this way so that I would get to see him more often

 

To celebrate this passage of life, I wondered what I could have the family do that would be meaningful. Ahhh, I remembered that I have always wanted to go to the Martin Harris pageant. For over ten years, I have seen it advertised in the Ensign and on church bulletin boards. I have always wanted to go! It always seemed too far away. Well, I figured it was now or never. They only do it on odd-numbered years so if I waited for two more years my son will be on his mission.

 

Our last breakfast with Valor at home.

 

It also starts at 8:30 and ends 10 PM. Then we would have an hour and a half drive to two hours home, which makes for a late bedtime. I talked my husband into it by saying that sometimes when he visits his mom with the kids they don’t get him until midnight.

 

 

So off we went and I am so glad we did. I felt richly rewarded. The setting for the pageant is the Clarkston Utah cemetery. It is in the middle of nowhere. I love that! Someday I want to live out in the country like that. I felt so peaceful as I gazed out at the mountains and imagined Martin Harris gazing out at them decades ago.

 

The pageant was beautiful and I felt the Spirit. The woman who played Lucy Harris had such a lovely voice. Now I have all these questions about Martin and Lucy. Did Lucy give the manuscript away of the lost 116 pages? Did she hide them and then they were stolen? What happened in her background that made her so insecure?

 

When the pageant depicted Angel Moroni showing the plates to Martin I definitely felt the Holy Spirit bearing witness to me that the event being shown really happened.

 

 

It just speaks peace to my soul to know that the Book of Mormon is true. The three witnesses who saw the plates it was translated from, as well as Joseph Smith, never denied their testimonies of it or of the angel. No matter what happens or how crazy the world gets, i can always rely on the Book of Mormon.

 

I really liked the handout that the pageant workers gave to the attendees. It has several interesting stories about Martin. I liked reading that he was a man known to be of good character and hard-working. He also believed in hard money, gold and silver. Sounds like an Austrian economics man! I like that!

 

This is the marker at the grave of Martin Harris.

 

When my college son was at home and much younger he liked to read this book that I got for Christmas one year, called The Book of Mormon on Trial. Seeing the pageant reminded me of that book. It tells some of Martin’s story more than the pageant did. The pageant didn’t talk about how he left the church and was excommunicated. The story in The Book of Mormon on Trial does though. It says he did get rebaptized. It also points out that he never denied his testimony of Joseph’s prophetic role appointed by God and the divinity of the Book of Mormon.

 

One of my younger sons recently discovered the book on our shelves and has been reading it and enjoying it. It’s in cartoon format and very interesting. You can order it here and read the first chapter for free http://bookofmormonontrial.com. (It makes a great Christmas or birthday present. Also, the book is based on the grandfather of one of my Veggie Gal friends, named Jack West. He was in law school and wanted to do a practice case by putting the Book of Mormon on trial. That’s a post for another day so I will tell the rest later.)

 

I am so glad we watched this pageant to celebrate the end of my son’s childhood. The next day he left with hugs and happy good byes. I’ve been wondering, did I teach him everything he needs to know? Like to change his underwear and pick up after himself and have good roommate manners. And then, have I learned everything I need to know from him, about using all of my electronic stuff such as my camera, my phone, this web site, and the computer. On the drive to the pageant, I quizzed him from this fun book I found, The R.A.T.: the Real World Aptitude Test. It’s a fun test that tests your knowledge for living on your own, unlike the S.A.T. which just tests your ability to take a scholastic skills test. I am happy to report that he knew most of the answers.

 

I so much have been wanting to be down there with him to check out his new place and make sure he’s keeping it clean and meet his roommates. I have only called him once, maybe twice a day and texted him a few times. We never allowed him to be on Facebook while he was here because I felt it would be too much of a distraction from his studies but told him I was OK with him getting on it now; I figure he has to learn to not get too distracted by it sometime.

 

So I was happy to find him on Facebook yesterday. I think I found one of his roommates too. Facebook is a mom of teenagers and college-ager’s dream. I can be aware of what he’s sharing with people and what they are sharing with him, in a way I couldn’t in the pre-Facebook days even if he were still at home.