Sitting beside my son is a privilege and it is a blessing, but it is becoming a rare event. I am becoming more aware than ever that he is becoming a man and more independent.

I remember the day I left home, my dad and mum drove me all the way to Santiago. It was a two hours drive and I do not remember what we talked about yet I knew deeply that that was me, out of the family home for good. I remember that my mum was fine all the way, but just as they were driving away from my new home, my mum began to cry. That memory is so fresh in my mind that it feels that it was only yesterday.

That was the beginning of the big adventure and it was not to be the first time that I left for good. After three years of College in Santiago, I did leave and this time was totally away from them, and friends, from everything that I knew and I, was familiar with.

This time was even harder for my family, two hours away from the family home was not a big deal compared with the thousands of miles that I will be away.

What sustained me? Faith in God? Well, I would like to say yes to that but that wasn’t it, in a way it was but honestly, it was the sense of not knowing, the adventure and definitely the “promise”. The promise was the one thing that brought me peace and a deep sense of emotional and spiritual assurance.

Jesus said: “All who have given up home or brothers and sisters or father and mother or children or land for me will be given a hundred times as much. They will also have eternal life.” (Matt. 19:29 CEV)

I can say without any doubts that this is true.

Things are not the same, our sons and our daughters will leave us, eventually!! What will not change are the warm tears of a mother, the hope of a father and the prayers of those who love them most.