Empty Nest

At dinner time the kitchen is dark and quiet. The study room is empty late at night. No one knocks on our door.

Our group of 15 students left last weekend so here we are, in a vacant mansion. I can empathize with empty-nest parents. The silence that follows a mass exodus is deafening. The calm is dismal. I miss the laughter on the stairs, the smells coming from the kitchen. I miss the knocks on the door and running into people on my way out. Mostly, I miss my friends.

But unlike parents who have sent off their last child, we still have ours anyway, we're getting ready for 18 new students in January. We're nervous (sharing your life with 18 strangers is pretty big) but we're excited. We had such a great time with our last group so we're hopeful for the next. We look forward to welcoming them into our family for four months and being apart of their lives. But until then we're taking advantage of our empty mansion.