We're Blessed - Our Kids have Grown Up!

How's my mental health today?

I'm hoping today will be a little quieter because I'm starting to spin too fast again.

So much is going on!

My daughter Lora showed up at our place yesterday afternoon with a huge smile on her face. She had her passport in her hand, opened it up and revealed the fact that she had received her Visa to go study in South Africa.

My first born is going far away - halfway around the globe! For 5 months!!!

She is so excited she's almost vibrating. She will be leaving early in the morning on April 3 to attend a Youth With A Mission training program in Worcester, South Africa. The program includes an Outreach component, and Lora recently learned that she will be going to London, England during the Olympics for this outreach activity.

What an incredible opportunity for her. Heidi and I are happy and thankful that so many people have stepped up to make this happen for Lora.

We had a great visit with Lora. In fact, we had a great visit with all of our kids (except our son-in-law who couldn't come over because he was working on an assignment for one of his courses at University).

Among many other topics, we talked about some of my blog posts. The two girls follow my blog regularly, although Jenny has fallen a bit behind because she's so very busy with Law School and work. I find it interesting to observe the different responses. Lora either laughs boisterously at my posts or shakes her head and utters, "Oh Papa." Jenny, being a critical - thinking law student, questions, challenges, and debates. I love the dialogue and really appreciated when she pointed out where I failed to communicate my point clearly enough. Kent quickly read a couple of the posts on  my computer so he knew what we were talking about, but didn't comment on those posts - that's just who Kent is. He and I are able to communicate on other things. Neil, the youngest of the bunch, came late. In fact I picked him up off the street when I was driving Lora home. Neil was just walking home from work when Lora spotted him, so I circled around, drove up behind him and leaned on the car horn to get his attention. He got in the car and after I dropped Lora off I brought him to our place for some supper. Neil doesn't read much, but I showed him yesterday's post. He read through it slowly, bursting out in laughter a few times. Neil too, has his own way of communicating, and his own interests and perspectives. He and I had a great chat when I drove him back to his apartment.

Our kids are grown up. They have their own homes, their own lives, their own interests.

We are blessed every time we get together with any of them. The relationship dynamics are wonderfully evolved. Sunday afternoons and evenings are the highlight of the week for us, because that's when they all come visit over a meal. We spend time together, hear what is going on in their lives and share what is happening in ours. It is a truly special time.

Then they they go back too their own homes.

Our kids have grown up and we are richly blessed.