Adventure-land here we come!

Often I am requested to explain how I am doing so soundly with the transition of having children in my home to one of them living in Norway since 2010 and the other who at 17, after graduating high school, elected to stay and live with friends in Illinois in 2012. I believe I have found the true component to transitioning successfully.

It is difficult at times without the boys, but I have to concentrate on the fact – they are doing what Father desires for them. I could be selfish with my emotions and desires and want them near me but I KNOW that is NOT God's will for them. I want them to be in His will. It has not been easy but it has been easier than I thought. I have allowed to GIVE myself the peace and gifts talked about in Galatians 5:22-23. We have the gifts but it is our choice whether we want to give them to others and ourselves.

It was a little concerning for me when Keven and I moved out here all by ourselves. It was the first time we had been together as a couple for an extended length of time since our first six months of marriage and even then I was pregnant. We definitely had a week or so of adjusting to the two of us without Micheal but I clung to Christ. I asked Him to help me see Keven through His eyes and love Him with His heart. I also took on the word Adventure. Every time Keven and I would talk about our lives together finally as a couple without kids or go anywhere, we would both say we are going on an adventure. That was what we talked about on the way out to New York. It was our adventure.

One thing you can choose to do is find a positive word to use that describes this new season in life. You can surely use ours to view this new season in your lives as an adventure, it will help to fight the enemy who would love you to embrace and keep grief close to your heart. Yes, there are times of grief due to the fact our children are gone and no longer in constant need of us. HOWEVER, it is our choice whether or not we embrace grief and loneliness or if we embrace the new beginning, adventure or season Father has for us now.

We have to choose to release our children so they do not desire to come back home. We must choose to release our children so they do not feel guilty about living somewhere else, but release them and ourselves to follow hard after the Lord through this transition and the rest of their lives. We must embrace Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit and keep our eyes fixed on Them as well as lavish our love on our husbands as well. For so long our husbands have not been the complete concentration in our lives under God because we were raising our children, but now it is a new season.

Are you struggling in any other areas in your life journey? If you could read what I have previously written and apply it to this difficulty the principles apply the same. It is our choice. We can embrace healthy eating, truth, wisdom, etc. or embrace harmful eating (etc.) due to sadness, boredom, loneliness and change. I encourage you to make a plan for doing what is right in this tough area for the rest of today and all day tomorrow. If you want to do something not so healthy put it in your plan, as long as it is not harmful to anyone or yourself, please. Start there. You can do this. You can make the change from diet to lifestyle change, from gloom and doom to gladness and vivaciousness, or from living in sin to living in victory. Sure, there are bumps, but you can make it through them.

Talk to me. Share with me. If not me, then the support you have. I am here for you. We CAN do this.

You are an amazing, powerful, devoted, intelligent, child of God. Welcome to your fresh season, your different adventure, your new beginning. You get to select where you are going and what you determine to embrace. There is no condemnation with any choice, unless you are walking in disobedience for condemnation follows disobedience because Satan slaps it upside your head. Conviction on the other hand is from Holy Spirit, which is one of the benefits of being a child of Father. When you are ready, Father will help and assist you to make the adjustments needed. Cry. Weep. Rejoice. Talk. Pray. Read the Bible. Journal. Strategically plan one day at a time. Embrace God. Embrace Jesus. Embrace joy. Embrace life. Embrace God's will for your kids and every single area of struggle and victory in life. Also, ask Father for grace throughout this transition.

I must also make certain I let you distinguish the fact that I am still very much in ‘want’ of information and conversation from my children so I ask many questions. I would like to hear from them more even if it is through a text stating, “I love you, Mom”. This is in no way to drop any hints to them either to contact me or to make them feel guilty when they do not. Life is busy for them, I understand completely. Recently I have come to accept the fact that they do not need to hear from me as much as I would like to hear from them. Again, this is in NO WAY a reflection of their love for me. Their love for me is trustworthy and not reliant upon how many texts, calls or visits I receive from them. I know they love me just as they know I love them, no matter what.

The true component in transitioning from children being in our home to Keven and I being the only ones in our home is being at peace with the fact that my children hear God and are following His design for their lives. The peace I have comes even when they may choose to do things differently than I would. I may share my unwarranted opinion, but I think that comes along with being a mom until they have their own families.

**Fun Fact (?) It has been said that 95% of all Jacuzzi's have fecal matter in them. Yikes!