Being a grown up mom is fun!

In the past six weeks we've seen our kids a lot. With two of them in northern CA, getting all of them together isn't easy. Our eldest lives in Fresno and the out-of-towners live in the San Francisco and Davis. They were home two weeks in a row in April. Then, Emilie had a couple of events that she came home for the past two weekends. It's been fun having all three kids under one roof. We try to make the most of it when it happens. A couple weeks ago the men folk spent the weekend in SF going to a couple of Giants games and staying at Matt's apartment. That weekend Emilie came home for a bachelorette party so she and I hung out all weekend doing girl stuff. She was home again yesterday and last night we took our oldest, Mike and her to a Grizzlies game. We cherish those times that we get to spend with our grown-up kids (22, 26, 27). When they were little we spent a lot of time with them, too. We were constantly busy with all their activities and family activities and just the activities of life. It seemed overwhelming and we thought they may never grow up. We looked forward to having time to ourselves when they left home. While we do like having an emptier house sometimes, we really look forward to having them all home. We are energized and thrilled that they actually want to be with us--and not just because we foot the bill! We share interests and love to do things together. We also love just visiting with them. We still worry about them and pray for some of the same things as when they were young--safety, spiritual growth, good choices, good mates, and on and on, but the difference is that we know them better now. We know the kinds of things they like to do and the directions their lives are going. We can pray for them much more specifically. There's still worry--we want their lives to be perfect. We don't want them to have to go through the trials that we went through as young adults. We know, though, that they will. They'll learn painful lessons. They'll realize that some of the things we nagged them about were valid and someday they'll have their own little ones to worry about. But we've taught them that family togetherness and closeness is one of the most important things in life. We've taught them that we can all count on each other--we have each other's backs. They know that their mom and dad will always love them, no matter what. They know the things they have done that have stretched our patience almost to the breaking point and they know we never, ever will give up on them. We just love our family. They get more precious to us every day. We know that one day when we're gone, they'll be the elders of our clan. Life just goes on and on and they have the foundation to be able to handle whatever gets sent their way. God felt the same way about family. That's why it's mentioned so much in His book. What a great idea He had when He invented families!