She's Leaving Home, bye bye

I have fond memories of the summer that I was getting married to Andy way back in 1995 and I knew that I would be moving out of my parents' home. One of my favorites is of my parents playing the Beatles' She's Leaving Home loudly on our record player.  I still see them sarcastically hugging/clinging to each other while standing in our kitchen and in an overly dramatic fashion singing these words to me.

She...(we gave her most of our lives)
Is leaving (sacrified most of our lives)
Home (we gave her everything money could buy)
She's leaving home, after living alone, for so many years (bye bye)...

She...(we never thought of ourselves)
Is leaving (never a thought for ourselves)
Home (we struggled hard all our lives to get by)
She's leaving home, after living alone, for so many years....

She (what did we do that was wrong)
Is Having (we didn't know it was wrong)
Fun (fun is the one thing that money can't buy)

Something inside, that was always denied, for so many years...
She's leaving home...bye, bye.

This song has come to mind a lot over the past couple of weeks as my baby sister Emma is preparing to leave for Utah.  She is a recent college graduate and is ready to start her life surrounded by people of our LDS faith.  She is so excited to go and I'm happy that she's happy.  But we are going to miss her terribly!  She's my junk-tv-watching-buddy, my link to cool new music, one of K & T's favorite people ever, and one of my best friends.  Thanks to technology we will get to 'see' her a lot, but I know it just won't quite be the same.  

 For Emmie, I have loved you from the moment we met more than 23 years ago.  I'm sure we were friends before this life, and I will be forever grateful for you. I know this isn't goodbye, and hardly even a see you later.  We will be a part of each other's life forever!  Thank you for being who you are, for standing up for what you believe and for adding such richness to my life. Thank you for introducing K & T to microwave popcorn, they expect it every time you come over.  Thank you for helping with so many bedtimes.  Thank you for teaching T to say 'tuppence' from Mary Poppins, it is one of the sweetest sounds I have ever heard.  Goodnight Moon hasn't been the same since you taught K to say 'hush' in such a scary old lady voice.  :)  Thank you for that too, and so much more.  Enjoy every moment in Utah, try something new at least once a week, look for blessings, make lots of new friends, embrace change, and don't miss us too much, we will be here ready for your visits.  We love you Emma! 

My Dearest Emma, I'll love you forever, always and no matter what!