THE EMPTYING NEST

I should be thankful that I can call this entry: "The emptying nest" rather than "The empty nest"! We are at the empty next stage yet, but the emptying nest stage is starting to hit me. Although our son left for Navy boot camp at the beginning of summer, it was 2 weeks ago that it seemed real, as he graduated and left for training school in Texas. It will be months before we see him again, and likely he will posted far away in the days to come.

Tomorrow, we take our daughter 6.5 hours away to college! Not sure if it will feel worse once we drop our daughter off, as opposed to our son, but we are about to find out. Once we drop her off, we are down to 3 kids, all pre-teens or teenagers, and the countdown begins (or continues). Time is flying by, and the nest, that just began to empty, is emptying fast. It is sad...and hard.

On the positive side, there are many things to be thankful for:

• Our son is serving God and country
• Our daughter is following God's call to train as a teacher where we both went to school
• Our children are growing up, and are putting into practice the things they have learned during all of their years in our home
• Our children are all incredible blessings from God, and we look forward to see what He has planned for their future