Children coming home, Apartment Living

My youngest daughter came for an extended visit on Saturday. It will be a much more pleasant visit since we were able to work out our differences prior to her arrival. Her next older sister is coming today for a short visit – mostly to see her “Honey” but I am hoping she can spare some time for me and Mama.
It is both fun and stressful when children no longer living with the parents come home for a visit. Fun to see them and talk with them about their lives and their dreams; to see how things are going for them and see if what you tried to instill in them when they were much younger are evident somewhere in their lives at present.
It is stressful because the relationship is changing. I hesitate to say the relationship has changed, as if it is finalized between the independent child and you – the parent. It is changing and will continue to change for many years to come. My greatest concern for my eligible children is who they will marry. Next to salvation, which I believe is the most important life change; the choice of a spouse will have an enormous influence on the parent/child relationship in the years to come. I spend many hours of my life in prayer for that decision alone in the lives of my children.
Since I have seven children and there are seven days of the week I devote one day per week to meeting with God for the life of my child on the day that corresponds to his or her day of the week. I have done this for many years and I am seeing the fruit of that labor.
Mama and I were talking as we traveled home from the airport the other day and told the two children present that one of my earliest criterion for selection of a spouse was the willingness to have twenty children. When I bounced that question off of their Mama, her immediate response was, “Would you settle for fourteen?” Obviously I agreed. It dawned on me as we laughed at the memory that we will indeed have fourteen children – when all our seven children are married. We are up to nine right now.
One of the problems with selling the house is that we had to move into an apartment. The difference in available living space is underwhelming. Not quite depressing, but dangerously close. Having children come for a visit only reinforces the loss. It is as if our lives have somehow imploded – mostly for the better, but still at a noticeable cost.
We will always willingly share what we have and our children know that, but our ability to give them long-term refuge is severely dampened at the moment and, as Daddy, it burdens me with a sense of failure in that regard. Hopefully it is only a transitional period.
That’s what I’m praying anyway.