A Season Ended, Another Begun

Spring, summer, autumn, and winter.  One season ends, and another begins.  And so it is with our lives:  single life, the entrance of another special someone, engagement and newlywed years, then children come.  Children grow, and they go, and then there's just the two of us again, but with sons/daughters-in-law and beautiful grandchildren to love.

We recently took a step out of one season and into a new.  Our son Jacob took this step as well, into his own new season.  Before taking the step, we went out for a special dessert--and there's only one place to go for that:

Jacob took matters into his own hands, single-handedly packing the car.  Of course, our frugal family made sandwiches and snacks, and packed them in coolers, for meals on the road.

Jacob nudged the rest of his family along, prodding us to get ready so we could get on the road.  You see, he was pretty excited to start this new season of life, and I was not quiet so excited.

Making weird faces in the car

A few little hours later, we arrived at the WIU campus.  Those two tall buildings--specifically, the one of the left--were our destination.  We had very specific instructions where to enter the campus and what roads to take, depending on the dorm hall we were aiming for.  It really is organized chaos!

The building, and our new season of life, loomed larger.

The guys quickly organized Jacob's mostly newly-purchased life possessions at the curb.

Then, the move-in crew got it all into the rolling bin.

Everyone at Higgins Hall seemed friendly.  They had posted signs and welcoming words everywhere.



On Jacob's floor, we found that Jacob's roommate had already moved in, and was very patient as the six of us invaded, shook hands, shared names, and got Jacob situated.

Jacob got things on the desk while Danny thoughtfully got Jacob's laptop set up.

We joked around with Jacob's roommate, Luke, and I persuaded them to pose for a picture.  I think they'll get along just fine.  :)

The third floor has the laundry machines, and, of course, concessions!

Jacob's dorm room is on the other side of the building, on the left, way up high.

After taking all the guys out for pizza, we ended up on the lawn in from of Higgins, where Thomas played around with his dad.

The guys goofed off while I got the camera ready for a family portrait (to be revealed at Christmas).  Luke was happy to press the shutter button for us as we posed.  It was a lot of fun having someone behind the camera who didn't know what he was doing, trying to get us to laugh.  It wasn't hard to do, though, and I think we got a great shot together.

Our family portrait was the last picture I took.  We said goodnight, met Jacob in the morning for a little last-minute shopping, then dropped him off near his dorm (as close as we could get with all the freshmen and sophomores moving in), hugged amidst tears and last words, and drove away.

Thus ends our season of all our children are still at home.  But when one season ends, another begins.  Jacob begins his season of living on his own at college, and we continue on here at home, trying to get used to not having this amazing, personable young man around to keep things hopping.

I know that soon, this will be another treasured memory of life   But for right now, I miss him.  I just miss him.


Back to life,
Christine

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