It’s morning here in Corpus Christi. The last day of our visit before heading back home tomorrow at 6 am. I just took Sarah to the hospital where she’ll begin her 6 week rotation on Ob/Gyn. She talked to a friend last night who had just finished that rotation and he said, “It’s awful. Nobody assigns you a patient to follow. You just have to stand by the surgery room door and ask the doctor as she/he is passing by, “Could I come in, too?”

Third year medical students appear to have the role of standing and watching. They are just out of two years of classroom work and have no clinical experience so, apparently, they are first at the party, standing around the edges, hoping someone will acknowledge their presence. I said to Sarah as a I drove her this morning, “I used to hate going to parties until one evening I realized that I didn’t have any role of note to play. It wasn’t my party, after all. All I had to do was go in, eat some food, strike up a conversation with someone near or maybe instead just stand or sit and watch. I can’t say I love going to parties now, but at least at this point, I can relax.”

“Yeah,” she said. “My friend told me to just go be my happy, smiling self and I should be all right.” Then she added, “I don’t know who he thinks he’s been seeing these last two years.”

I see my girl in her white medical student “short jacket,” apparently the length of the white coat is a code in the hospital – long coats reserved for full-fledged doctors – slip out of the car at the Graduate Medical Studies door, wave and head inside. It’s 7:30 am and she doesn’t quite know when she’ll call and ask us to pick her up.

Sarah is leaning towards Ob/Gyn as a specialty. She was present for the two home births of her sisters when she was 3 1/2 and then again at 9, and both times she acted as coach to me. “You’re doing good, Mama,” she called when she was little, and then at 9, the seasoned pro, she held my hand and said, “Not long now, Mom.” I remember so clearly her calm green eyes. She looked straight into mine and was so present. One of my closest friends who spent lots of time with her when she was young called her the Buddha baby. Calm and peaceful much of the time. Those women would be lucky to have her in the room during their labor and delivery.

I have so loved being here with our oldest girl. Almost 30, she is now an adult with all the skills to prove it. She knows how to move to a new place all alone, create a new home, meet strangers and make them friends. Still, she needs her mom and dad. Yesterday, Ray hooked up her wireless internet and last night she said, “Mama, if you wanted to, you could make me some food for the week. That would be really nice.”

Yes, that would be nice. Now all I have to do is make enchiladas in a frying pan since she has not one dish for baking.