I have written before regarding Child #1’s strange behavior, but I want to explain and ask for prayers. My firstborn daughter was stressed when I dropped her off at college last Fall for her Senior year. She told me she did not need me to stay to help her arrange her room, even though I was planning on that mom-daughter bonding time.
It had been a rough Summer for all of us, especially with Child #3’s mental problems and hospitalizations, etc. I was hurt. Since her roommate and significant other had decided to school from home last year and her best friend had graduated and moved on to graduate school halfway across the country, I thought she’d welcome the help. Not so. She sent me packing as soon as all her stuff was in her room. I was shocked.
Later last Fall I sent her a goody package with sweets. We talked on the phone once and then nothing. She did not return home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, her birthday, Mother’s Day, or my birthday. There was no explanation and no letting me know of her plans at all.
I was lost. Where was my child? So, when COVID eased up a bit and I was fully vaccinated, Children #’s 2, 4 and I (Child #3 still had school) made a trip up to Child #1’s school. We alerted the university that we were on campus, but Child #1 refused to come to see us. What? Of course the university cannot force a student to see her family, but I was shocked again. When I kept messaging her to come out, she turned off her messages. What had happened?
I later learned that she has been into some pretty weird stuff. She was anti-Catholic for a while (a problem since we are all Catholic!) and then seemed to let it go. I knew she was into the spiritual, but all signs now point to witchcraft. She is a very confused young person who is searching for meaning. I pray that with enough prayers, she will come back to Christianity and realize the error of her ways.
As of now, I have no contact with her which, as a mother, breaks my heart. As a single mother, it sends me into a tailspin. She didn’t even want me at her graduation ceremony which I watched at home on YouTube. However, she is 22 and an “adult” so must be treated as such. I hate tough love! I think it’s toughest on the parent! I will persevere and pray with everything I have even though my heart is breaking.
I will remember my three other children at home who desperately want and need me. And I will find a way to be satisfied with that. I will never, however, stop hoping and praying. It may take twenty years as it famously did for St. Monica to reach her son, St. Augustine, through prayer, but I would do the same for my kid. Will you please join me?
Thank you and God bless,
Rita
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