Girls Weekend

I remember girls' weekends of a decade ago (or maybe it was more). Girlfriends, staying out all night at night clubs, food and wine and lots of "girl talk" AKA gossip. How times have changed. Today, I am preparing for a different kind of girls' weekend. Oh, it's still going to involve, staying up all night, food (mostly junk food), a  nice dinner out and girl talk, but this one's going to be very different from girls weekends of my past.
Steve and I have been preparing for THIS girls' weekend for 13 years since welcoming a baby girl into the world. Now, that baby is almost as tall as me and turning heads of boys (and young men).  Over the years, we have talked, prayed and sought advice about raising her, keeping lines of communication open and teaching her to become a young woman. This weekend is going about doing all of those things.
I am so excited. We will be going whitewater rafting - something I did for the first time when I was about her age. We'll be talking and eating and playing games. I am excited for the opportunity to have this time to REALLY get to know her, without her sisters, friends and other influences or distractions. Getting to know her as a teen, not as my "baby girl". We'll be discussing some really deep issues like her hopes and dreams, her faith and values, dating and yes, sex. We've talked about many of these things before and I hope and pray we continue to talk about them.
Talking to my peers, I have found we more often than not didn't talk about things like "deep" things growing up, with each other or our parents. Often, we still don't talk about them sometimes. Instead, we bottle stuff up, assume it's "just us" or "normal". We hurt inside or we rejoice, alone. Recently, I have seen this changing. Girls Nights Out (or GNOs) now are less about gossip and forgetting our problems and more about sharing and caring and bonding. Friends sharing struggles with parenting, health, spiritual issues, career or financial issues. Friends sharing and rejoicing in good news too like beating cancer, getting a new job, finding love. Won't it be nice if my daughters always know that they don't have to bottle stuff up inside? If they know they can share concerns or questions or joys with me or their dad and their God?
I thought I would be nervous, anxious or even scared about this weekend, but I am not. I am truly looking forward to it. Sadly, I look back at her baby pictures and know that a chapter has ended. Yet, when one chapter ends, another begins and I am SOO excited to see what this next chapter has in store for it's main characters.