The Empty Nest

Well, it's official - the nest is empty...

Today, we helped Collin move back into the house in College Station. Stacey and I enjoyed spending time with him over the short break between his summer job at Sky Ranch and his senior year at A&M. It's hard to believe he's about to embark on the last year of college...my FB "today in history" has been full of flashbacks recently - to his freshman year, and even to Taylor's... Time really flies.

As the father of three sons, I'm very proud of everything they've each accomplished to this point. It's been 24 years of the "only" child (aka "the first-born"), then the "second" child (aka "the mini-me"), and then the "baby" (aka "the man-child"). Those labels mean different things to different people, but for me they point to the fact that they are three very unique individuals. While we may (temporarily) feel a sense of loss as this stage of our lives begins, I am sure that this role God called us to - parenting - is far from over.

Recently, I've been catching up on a task long overdue - converting old VHS tapes to DVD's. It's been a trip down memory lane, and a true reminder of the circle of life - loved ones young and old, hairlines long and short, waistlines thick and thin... It's just hard to adequately convey how blessed I feel to have been born into the circumstances which I was - parents and grandparents who loved each other and loved me as well, who taught me how to find my own way and trusted me to do it. I'm blessed by the fact that Christ knew me before I was even born, and had the perfect person picked out for me to spend the majority of my life with (over half of it already).

Stacey and I celebrated our 29th anniversary in June, but if you count the dating, we've been together 33 years. I can remember hearing about how you aren't supposed to build your relationship around the kids, because they'll be gone "one day"... and for us, that day is here. I am hopeful that we have done a good job of preparing for it... but I'm certain we will have lots of time to get better at it.