by: Jenni Vinson
July 7, 2001
It’s good to be settled in Alice. Since we’ve been married we’ve had a very mobile nest.
We lived in Kingsville while we were wrapping up our undergraduate studies. We moved three times while we were there.
Then we moved to the Washington DC area. We lived in a condo, (that’s code for “very old apartment complex at a very high price”) and after that we move to an “East Coast” house- a two-story house with a fully functional basement. Those houses are very narrow and the rooms are quite small. They just have a lot of height.
After that we moved to Alice on Second Street and finally we ended at the address we are at now. When we initially purchased this house, we hoped to have this be our family’s last move.
We purchased the house “as is” from VA and that turned out to mean that the city listed the dwelling as uninhabitable. The electrical wiring and the plumbing were dated back to the 1930’s- give or take a a decade or so.
We were almost done with the renovations of the house when we experienced the great fire of 1996. We rebuilt it after a full year of hard work. That was our son, Oscar’s Senior year in high school. We moved back into the house a couple of weeks before he graduated.
We listened to and catalogued the sounds of all three of our children in this house for that summer and then it was time for Oscar to move into his dorm room. Everything he does is loud- guitar, sax playing, TV watching or just plain talking and/or laughing- he does it all at maximum volume. The house is too quiet without him.
Our two girls are both in highschool now with very active schedules that keep them busy and at school.
The Vinson nest is in transition where our children are in the process of learning to fly and the two Vinson adults are quite aware that soon, the state of the nest will be: EMPTY.
After years of long night vigils for fevers, pox, toothaches, surgeries and science projects, we are near the end of the intense parenting stage.
I dread the day we get a call from one of our kids from far away informing us that they are sick or hurt. How in the world does a parent handle that? Both our girls go through migraine headaches. I’m not sure how I will be able to allow them to have one without me.
After graduation, Oscar’s friends have always congregated at our house during their time off from college. This Christmas break they all reported that they will be graduating either in May or December.
They have been buds since their sophomore year in High School and this was likely their last Christmas break gathering. They will each be returning back to their campuses to begin the end of their college days.
We went Christmas Caroling again this year, as has been our tradition for the past twenty years. I hope we’ll make it to twenty-one.
Little things have become precious. I sat quietly in my room one night this holiday just to listen to all three of our kids carrying on.
I had no idea how much I missed hearing all their voices together under our roof. The sound of them catching up with each other, their laughter and even their loud music was so incredibly wonderful.
We’ve gone through some tough times, some great times, hysterical times, lots of PTA, Choir concerts, Band concerts and basketball and football games, Vacation Bible Schools, Sunday School Classes and Youth events.
We have few more of those to go as well as some more Band concession stands, Choir barbeques and the never to be forgotten, Band Chicken barbeques.
We are watching them become adults and that is not an easy thing. We are watching them go through everything we gave them and decide what they will keep as their own- from clothes to furniture to religious convictions.
We just have to trust that we have managed to say it all and say it well and that, in the end they will make the right decisons and that they will be good and happy people.
If you have children, with God’s grace, you too will one day have to deal with a time like this.
Pre-empty nest syndrome could be a sad time, but that would be a waste. There is so much to be celebrated. There are so many memories to be cherished and so many yet to be made. The only way you can get to this time with feelings of dread and remorse is if you simply let all the years pass and your children just get older and you are NOT a part of it and you are NOT there.