Another Birdie Has Left the Nest

Daughter number three of five has officially flown the coop, joining her two older sisters as adults pursuing their own lives.

My daughters range in age from 3 to 28. I now have two left at home, 13 and 3.

I have been a mom since I was 17 years old. This is the first time in my life that I actually see the end of motherhood. I know it's still a long way off but, really, I see the end coming, and I don't like it.

I know we raise our children to leave someday. We teach them to be self-sufficient and independent. It's a good thing that they can live and survive on their own.

However, I am grieving. I am grieving the lost of their everyday presence in our home, their help, and their laughter. I think there's so much more yet I need to teach them, share with them, prepare them for, it's too soon to go.

God is in charge, now. Well, he has been in charge the whole while, really, but now I have to completely give them over to him.

Our family is once again beginning a new chapter in our lives. My husband reminds me when one door closes another opens up.

Maybe being less mother opens the door for being more Grandma to my three grandchildren.

Another reality hitting is facing the fact that I am aging. I am no longer the teenage mom, the twenty something mom, or the thirty something mom. I am the mid-forties mom and grandma. Soon, I'll just be the Grandma and the Great Grandma. I know, that's a ways off yet. But I can see it on the horizon now where I never could before.

Seasons in life take some adjusting to get use to the new reality. I am adjusting.