ANNOUNCEMENT: AFFORDABLE RESOURCES FOR HEALING
If you are in a difficult marriage or if you are separated or divorced, I have created two comprehensive e-courses to help you process and heal and learn tangible tools to help you move forward in more whole and holy ways. Both of these courses are now PAY WHAT YOU CAN and both of these courses are now offered via weekly content over twelve weeks OR in a PDF guidebook if you’d rather not take three months to go through it!
Marriage Methods is for women in challenging marriages who are hoping to stay but in better ways. You can see all the details and register here: https://bit.ly/marriage-methods-pwyc
Heartbreak to Hope is for separated or divorced women who are longing to find healing after their marriages have ended. You can see all the details and register here: https://bit.ly/Heartbreak-to-Hope-pwyc
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It starts the moment we hold our babies for the first time, no matter how that sweet child came into our lives.
We know it’s coming, in the far reaches of our hearts and minds.
That the entire point of parenting is supposedly to let our children go a bit more every day.
But that’s, what, 18 years from now?? That’s forever and a day! We have all the time in the world with our children.
Well, as the saying goes, the days are long (Lord, have mercy, were some of those days long) but the years are short. They are so very short, those hard and beautiful years.
Because we blink, truly, and our children are graduating from high school…..going off to college…..heading into the workplace…..
…..we blink again and they’re graduating from college…..moving into their own place…..getting married…..
The empty nest syndrome.
That’s a bit of a misnomer, I think. It’s more like the emptying nest.
Because it starts off with back and forth, come and go, letting go and stepping in, for a few years it seems.
It’s little losses and huge grieving and crying jags in the car or the closet or wherever.
And you didn’t expect this level of emotion.
I read that the first week after your child leaves, you walk around your house crying. The second week, you walk around lost. The third week, you walk around naked. I bet a man wrote that.
Because I’ve hovered somewhere between crying and lost, at least in the deep ‘my children’ part of my heart for years now.
I have raised two children from womb to young adulthood.
I launched my daughter off to college.
Then I launched my son off to college.
Then I launched my daughter off to marriage.
And I’m currently launching my son into the real world and the workplace and his own place, as I write.
Girls, I have lived this and I am living this, down into my soul and my bones.
I have walked through immense trials in my life but hands down, letting my children go has been one of the most painful things I’ve ever done.
Five years of grieving and little goodbyes.
Five years of lessons on letting go.
Five years of transition and who am I now?
Five years of mercy and comfort from God.
So, if this is you…if you are bracing yourself for this next season of life, anywhere from a child leaving after high school through a child finally moving out…and you need some support and you need some guidance, I’m here.
Emptying Your Nest will help you:
grieve & process
practice letting go in tangible ways
allow you to begin to rediscover yourself and who God created you to be
point you to God the Father who lets us go over and over every moment
Is this season about your child and all that is waiting for them? Of course, it is!
But, precious momma, in the midst of making lists and registering and shopping and packing, your heart is deserving of tenderness and tending to.
Join me for Emptying Your Nest.
And check out these two episodes on the All That to Say podcast sharing about how it feels when our kids start to launch and a conversation with one of my best friends about our experiences.
I did not get that 5 years. Both left abruptly. I so need this but I don’t have much time.
Alora, I’m so very sorry. I’d love for you to join in. It won’t take much time…only as much as you’d like and need to put into it. Let me know.