We took one of our housekeepers out to dinner for her birthday

 She has worked for us since my wife's first Knee replacement in 2014. I was about 67 years old then and I took care of my wife the first few weeks after the replacement. So, I was grateful to get someone much younger and more cheerful there for my wife and I so I could survive all these changes in our lives better and so could my wife.

So, since then she has become sort of a member of our family and we have watched all her kids grow up. We sent her to Hawaii with her oldest daughter when she graduated High School. Since then her oldest daughter has been very successful and got her Bachelor's degree from Sacramento State University and has a good job in this area now too.

Though our housekeeper has been self employed all this time so she could spend more time with her children she is now coming up on 50 years old within a few years and realized she needed more security in her life and so is getting a part time job at a local hospital. So, she is going through a lot of changes as a single mother of 3 with the youngest now 17 and going to college locally.

So, if you are a dedicated mother and provider there is a lot when you start to move towards being an empty nester. 

My wife and I became empty nesters around 2014. I have been raising someone under 18 continuously since 1974 until 2014 so it is a lot when you have been raising kids that long to become an empty nester.

When you have children you feel that they are going to be there forever. Nope. They are going to grow up usually and have lives of their own.

Also, my wife and I are world travelers and so our children have become world travelers too. My son taught English in South Korea for 5 years and met his present wife there and they have an 11 year old son now here in the U.S. My next older daughter is an adopted daughter who is now 40 years old and lives in Southern California nearer to San Diego. My youngest daughter has been to college in Seattle and San Francisco and Berlin, Germany. My oldest biological daughter is now married and living in the Alps in Europe with her husband and year old daughter now too.

So, we are far away from all our children both biological and adopted now and we have 4 grandchildren and we luckily have met them all and were there for two of the births here in Southern California.

So, we are very lucky to have all our family safe and educated and doing pretty well at this point.

By God's Grace