The Road to Empty Nesters Place

Ya estuvo! I’m done. No more teenagers to raise. Did you hear that door close? It was loud as that last teen left. This was my fourth time experiencing the end of raising another teen, and still each time that 19 year old teen leaves, I hold my breath regretting that he’s never coming back. Pero, no need to regret, they come back as… “adult children.” Twenty year old Thomas came through my front door just as loud, “HEY, HEY, HEY!” Y sabes que? He still sounds like that 19 year old that left last Thursday morning? I’m glad, because this last time was hitting me hard, again, I fretted that my parenting ‘license’ expired? 

Empty Nesters are ‘those’ parents who are done raising children, as in, the children leave home. Gracias a Dios that as I write this, I don’t quite fit that description yet. Like I did with his  brothers, les digo, “Look out and over the side of the nest” Agarrense! Hang on tight to Jesus 

Because adulting is all that, and more, hijole! 

Permit me to indulge in memories of Thomas stepping into our lives… He was definitely a surprise.

He showed up in my womb and made himself at home, in perhaps the most critical time of my life…When I thought I needed to go a different way, when I believed I had to “take control” of my life, asi es, pero! Please don’t look at me like that, humans, were like that, thank God that he pulled me “back into the ark”…After I dropped all my fears, I was able to embrace this wonderful surprise and of course 20 years later, I can say he was bien facil to deliver at only 8 1/2 libras 😀

His siblings fell in love with him as soon as they met him. Jonathan couldn’t hold him enough, Daniella easily nurtured him too, since Emery kept “el baby” position. They both enjoyed their big sister. 

My older sister Lupe absolutely fell in love with my guero, Thomas, he was not so secretly her favorite! And he loved her back…It was a match made in heaven.

Our dear friend Doug, well he was wrapped around 3 year old Thomas’s little finger. He gives God the glory for using Thomas to soften his heart toward the gospel, imaginate!

My surprise gift of a son turned out to be a gift to others. This little son of my “old age” makes me want to keep him home as long as he wants, but even as I write this, I’ve been praying that God would make him ‘His man’ and give him eyes to find a good candidate 😀 for a wife and “obtain favor from the Lord! (Prov. 18:22)

En Conclusion:

As I change lanes into “Empty Nesters” living, I’m one of those parents who can’t make up her mind. Now that I’m an abuela, I love a quiet house but, oh how I miss my kids when they don’t come around. Y ahora, they come with the rest of my inheritance, it does get pretty loud en mi casa. When they visit, Ben checks out at his bedtime, usually pretty tired, but we keep right on talking. When they do leave, usually late, I close the door behind them and take a heavy sigh of relief mixed with contentment. My house is quiet again.

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