Have you ever loved someone so much that your heart hurts when you part? You know they need to be free and immeasurable love asks you to release them so your own pain does not hamper their joy.

I took my daughter to the airport early yesterday morning so she could travel throughout China and teach English in Phuket, Thailand for a year. After work, I came home and poured my pain into this mixed media piece I titled Immeasurable Love. 

The dandelion blowing in the wind is one of Elya’s favorite themes, so I added this to the mixed media piece. 

The dandelion blowing in the wind is one of Elya’s favorite themes. Her painting, “Be Still,” has been repinned on Pinterest more than any other pieces of her artwork.

Today this scripture comforts me. She is like a dandelion, blowing to the far corners of the earth. I remind myself of God’s immeasurable love for her and whisper, “I know you will take care of my precious girl.” 

Elya is my delight; this young woman lights up the room with smile and in so many ways mirrors my heart. 

Her carefree soul and wanderlust has propelled her to travel and live overseas for extended periods of times. She’s got the same genetic predisposition that propelled me to move to Europe when I was twenty-years old and to travel to twenty-five countries. So, I think: How can I not extend the same grace to her that my parents extended to me?

I placed the travel ticket in the top right corner of the mixed media piece as a symbol of her great love of travel. The ticket reminds me to be thankful for a daughter who opens up other lands to me through her vivid accounts, artistic photos, and Skype conversations.

Immeasurable love. That’s what parenting takes when your offspring longs to leave home and go far, far away.