A Half Empty Nest

Our son Brad plans to attend the University of Arkansas this Fall. He will major in Business or Political Science. This means that, starting in the Fall, we will have a half empty nest. I count this as a mixed blessing. I am excited about what the boys will become as they transform into adults. I enjoy this stage and I am trying to appreciate and celebrate each moment as it comes along. Of course it is sometimes easier said than done!

I realized at Christmas that this was likely to be Brad’s last Christmas living at home. I do hope he will want to come home for future Christmas celebrations. I have been praying a lot lately for the boys to become the people that God intends them to be and for them to have hearts to worship and serve Him always.

"Who are those people in my guest room closet?" The question was intriguing, and the answer required many hours of research. Boxes of family photos stored on the upper shelf of the guest room closet held the clues. Many of the pictures were of people my friend had known since childhood. Others were labeled and she knew who they were, though they had passed away even before her birth. What frustrated her were that those not labeled. She embarked on a quest to find out who those people were and how they happened to be in her family pictures.

"I found another one!" she would shout with excitement! And so she did find many, carefully labeling and adding another person to her family tree. It was wonderful that she found the time for searching and that she experienced joy in the process.

Still, if you have pictures in your closet, I encourage you to label all of them that you can personally identify. 

Visit Leigh's blog to learn more about how to help your family remember your old photos.

• Holly Hayfield
• Rocky Haire
• Rick Hagen
• Robert Brown
• Libby Dorn
• Catherine Simpson
• Adam Friday
• Darrell Bulls
• Gina Hill
• Greg Hanson
• Dana Huston