"Let go and let God..."

It's a red letter day in our house.... my "baby" finally got her drivers license today and drove off by herself for the first time... sigh
My mother used to say "the chicks leaving the nest" and it is how it feels. Literally. I've read that mother birds push their birds out of the nest to teach them to fly, and then catch them if they fall.
Anyway.
I didn't worry as much with my 2 much older children. They didn't have cell phones when they learned to drive and you didn't have to worry if your child would text, or worse, the other driver. For 5 years I've commuted 22 miles to work in another town, and it's more dangerous now than ever. Yes, it's a tad more crowded but mainly because it's a 2 lane road, and other drivers are on their phones, checking Facebook, Instagram, texting, or fooling with their iPods, and cross over in my lane, coming head on at my car. As a seasoned driver, I slow down and move into the shoulder, but it's still pretty dangerous. The other day, some jerk in the opposite lane decided to pass about 7 cars at the same time, and I had to  get out of his way to avoid a head-on collision.
And yes, everyone's moving to Texas thinking we have jobs, when we really don't. So if you're thinking about moving to Texas, don't. It's like California was in the 70's... everybody's moving here. I remember seeing a bumper sticker when I visited Cali that said, "Welcome to California! Now go home." Sounds mean I suppose, but it did, in fact, ruin "paradise." Police officers here will throw you in jail for anything. I guess it's like that everywhere now, and if you are in the younger generation, chances are you've been thrown in jail for something that they used to give you warnings about first. And don't even think about drinking and driving. First offense in Texas has jail time, and costs are over $20,000 for first offense. As I said, very similar to California. I don't drink and drive. I actually can't drink because of my tachocardia but I can tell you in the old days, the cops were a lot more lenient on people. Not anymore. Strike one and you're out, but I digress.
DD is on the streets driving now, and it's a bit terrifying as her mother. Even getting a license in Texas has become much more difficult. Here in the hill country, it's first come first serve to get a drivers license, and they only take the first 4 kids for driving tests. Consequently we were told you have to get up at 4 or 5 am, and "camp out" at their front door, which we did yesterday and waited from 6 am to 8:30 am when they opened. Of course, there was a snafu, and I had put the wrong license plate sticker on the other vehicle, so they wouldn't even let her do the test. She was furious all day at me. Ugh...
But today "all of the stars aligned" and, since cheer pix were cancelled due to hard rain, we headed over to the DMV to the zombie employees and voila, got her license. It's bittersweet though. She's so excited for her new found freedom,
But I won't see her near as much :(