Mon Jan  5 09:38 EST 1998
Weekend Update: The New Year

Happy New Year!

1998, I think, will be a year of significant change for me and my
family.  Miranda will be 18 in April, graduate from High School in
May, and go off to college in September.

I remember standing in my Pastor's office looking at the pictures of
his children, taken about the time they came to our church.  His
oldest daughter was 15 when I stood there that day.  I said to him,
"in three years, the texture of your family will change forever."  It
seemed to me that if it wasn't like a new revelation to him, it was a
painful reality brought a little closer.  I knew my eldest daughter
was only a few years behind and I would follow in his parental
footsteps.  Now I'm facing it closer than I want to.

It isn't just me, or Joy, or Miranda; it is all of us.  Jessica will
assume some quasi-firstborn role, like it or not.  And all-too-soon
she, too will be off, giving us four years with our younger family.

For the first ten years of marriage, we added to our family.  The next
9 years, we grew our family.  The next 8 years, we will see them leave
the nest, coming home with friends, then spouses, then even
grandchildren.  It may sound like it's far off to you, but not to me.

I have a feeling similar to the one when Miranda first took the car on
her own; mingled anxiety and excitement.  Have we done the job as
parents?  How will she fly on her own?  And what of her siblings?  We
rely on the Lord for our future, who has been reliable in our past.
But it will take me all of this year to let go, I think.

Mark
Mark Metcalfe                   _______    "What about him, Lord?"       ,
Cadence Design Systems, Inc.   / Holy /,                            ,__0_/
270 Billerica Road, MS 04     /Bible //    "What is that to you?       M
Chelmsford, MA 01824         /______//        You must follow Me."   ./|.
(978) 446-6451              (______(/              John 21:21-22