It’s 5:30AM and Devin is leaving home after being here for five days. It’s been his longest visit home in three years, but as I watch him go I think of how blessed we are to have him. How many other parents have lost sons and daughters in the war or how many parents never have any children at all. Still parting is always sweet sorrow. He’s a young man now and no longer under our roof. Our daughter’s been home too though she’s with us more often, at least for now. She’s in her senior year of college and I know that soon she too will be out from under our wing.
We’ve had a full house these last five days as both our children have been home along with their friends. Most of the time its much quieter at the Crestview cloister as I call it. We’ve been empty nesters for almost four years now and though we enjoy the freedom that brings we still long for those times when we were all together. Life is fleeting and it seems that children are too.
Devin left home this morning to drive to Rochester to attend a Buffalo Bills game with friends. He’s been an ardent Bills fan since he was a little boy. I watch the games sometimes, but only once in my life have I ever attended a game at the stadium. This morning it’s 18 degrees Fahrenheit and although Devin assured me it would be 40 at game-time that just seems too cold to me.
We pray for Devin as he makes his way home to the Rochester area and we remember the good times of the past week. Today Diane and Dara will decorate our newly cut Douglas fir Christmas tree and then Dara will leave too and then our home will be still again.