"Empty Nesters?"

Way back - before the 3 little guys joined our family - Ron and I actually had a WHOLE YEAR of experiencing what it was like to be empty nesters.

We'd received a call from a church in Sth Gippsland, Victoria to come over and be their pastor ( did I mention my hubby Ron is a pastor) and family. Would we take that call or stay in the beautiful Blue Mountains west of Sydney?

Well, we swapped the blue hills for the green rolling hills of dairy farming territory and moved to the little town of Leongatha which would be our home for the next 6 years. We excitedly packed our boxes but hmmm...what about the kids? Our 4 older ones were growing up quick and our daughter had her mind made up quick smart - she was moving too - but not to Leongatha. She wanted to go live in Geelong where we had lived when the children were younger. It also was a teeny bit of motivation that her boyfriend (who became her husband) lived in Victoria. I think her boxes were packed and numbered in record time!

The 2 youngest sons who were then 14 and 16 came with us but we had to leave son #1 behind...he wanted to pursue his career in music.

So, off we went with 2 sons..saying goodbye to 2 and that was hard for this mama to take.

After a year in our new home, guess what?

The 2 sons with us decided to return to the Blue Mtns as they missed their brother and mates.

They shared a house together which was a positive that they actually WANTED to live together again....

But...

What about mum and dad?

We had just moved into our beautiful brand new home that we had built for us..the first time we ever had the joy of building a home.

And now? They were leaving us?

After waving the boys off in their old cars loaded with their wordly goods, we sniffed a bit, shed a few tears and then.......

WOW!! We had this whole house to ourselves? This lovely 5 bedroom home was OURS just the 2 of us to enjoy?....our minds whirled at the possibilites...

HAHA!! It didn't take long at all...I was miserable. I was soooo missing the frantic frenzy of family. I roamed the house, looking for odd left behind socks to wash...pathetic huh?

God, in His plan for us, had called us to another adventure, that of adoption and we were by then (before becoming empty nesters) well into the process. Oh soon we would fill these rooms again and I spent many moments daydreaming in the rooms we had prepared for our children-to-be.

And then, finally, after several months without more than 2 dinner plates on the dining table, God answered our prayers and we had that wonderful phone call that would change our lives forever. There was to be 3 more additions to our family!

Finally we travelled to the Philippines to meet our new sons. My heart just warms at the memory of that special time. Our older boys came too but they were living back in NSW and so we came home with just 3 little people under the age of 5.

Empty nesters no more...3 months later....the 2 boys who had gone to live with their brother decided to come back...

Empty Nesters? Whoa - Packed to the Nauta's instead...!!

And that's how its been since...and this mama is loving every minute of it! Yes, even the HUGE number of socks in the washing.