Here We Are, Now What?

You are entering a new season. It is new, challenging, and complicated, but you will learn to enjoy it!

The day my firstborn got his driver's license and pulled out of the driveway alone with my two younger daughters in tow, tears streamed down my face. One or two lone tears gently flowed down my face, but one or two quickly turned into a river as I peered out the window. "This is it. It's the beginning of the end," I thought. Even then, with my son only sixteen, I was keenly aware that he would soon be leaving the nest and my daughter, only seventeen months his junior, would follow quickly behind. At that moment, I realized I would have to learn to live without my children in my home. I got pregnant with that son at only seventeen years old, and the thought did not escape me that I had never actually been an adult without him. I had never lived without the day-to-day demands of motherhood on my task list. And yet, as he drove down the street that morning, I knew it wouldn't be too long before my daily motherhood duties would be in the rearview.

If you thought the day he got his driver's license was terrible, you should have seen me the day I dropped him off at college. The summer before, I had spent more than an awkward amount of time with tears and doom as I anticipated the fateful move. It was coming. He was leaving. The day we loaded his small fridge, TV, and bedding into the SUV and drove him to campus, I thought it would kill me. And no, I am not exaggerating. I smiled and took the obligatory dorm room photos with mom and son as I hugged him and told him to "make wise choices," but when I pulled away from that parking lot, tears flowed like a river, and it easily took six months for me to get used to the new normal. And then, my oldest daughter left nine months after that!

As I embark on the journey of moving toward an empty nest, I don't mind telling you that I have probably not had the smoothest of transitions. My hope through our time together is to share with you the most authentic and raw moments and how the Lord has used them since.

I did my fair share of complaining, grumbling, enabling, and controlling. I didn't simply ease or edge into my next season with grace. I plummeted into it with a near-death experience! So, beware! Over the next few moments, the wisdom I offer is peppered with the air of skinned knees and bloodied noses as I fumbled around with the right way to become something other than mom.

Hint: I learned more about this Jesus I serve than I ever had before!

Point to Ponder:

• What are some of the biggest challenges an empty nester faces, in your opinion?