Monday, January 13, 2014

EMPTY NESTERS---by Guest, Anne Mateer



We cleaned out the room over our garage last month to receive our new college graduate. The year before, we converted the bright bedroom at the front of the house into my office. The dining room has been a dining room, a dedicated library, then back to a dining room. The dark middle bedroom has been an office and a room for kids home from college to crash.

Our house seems constantly in flux. God has used that to teach me a visual lesson about life, for it seems to be in continual change as well.

Yes, there are some constants. So far I havent been able to repurpose the kitchen or the laundry room, thus meaning I still have to cook and clean! In the same way, my family remains, even when our proximity and relationship to one another changes. Right now those relationships are in constant reconfiguration as the children navigate their own lives as young adults.


For my husband and I, our professions have stayed the same, but each of us has had a shift of focus in past few years. We have had to figure out what this means for each of us individually and for us together as a couple, as empty nesters and then as parents with an adult child in the house. No time to get comfortable or complacent! In fact, just as when I seem to get a room settled in our house and the need for change arises, I find that in my life a measure of peace often becomes a precursor to some amount of unsettlingeven if for good reasons!

Already Im wondering what that room over the garage is meant to be when our daughter moves out later this year. An office? A bedroom for a different child? A different use altogetherone we cant fathom at this moment? The not knowing makes me a little anxious, but I know who does know. And whether in life or in my house, I can trust that He will reveal each step as I need to take it. For now, Ill enjoy having our daughter into our daily lives for the first time in over four years. And Ill remind myself not to get too attached to the way things are. For nothing is certain in life. Nothing except that things will, indeed, change.

About Anne Mateer: 
Anne Mateer has been writing for what feels like her whole life, but began seriously studying the craft of fiction in 2000. Since then she has completed eight novels, had pieces published in local periodicals and an anthology, attended writing conferences and finaled in several contests. She currently has three published historical novels: Wings of a Dream, At Every Turn,  and A Home for My Heart. A fourth, Playing By Heart, will release in the fall of this year. But writing is only a piece of her life. Anne is also a wife of 26 years and the mother of three young adults, both of those roles much more precious to her than the title of author.  

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Current release: A Home for My Heart

A sweet story of hope and love set against the poignant backdrop of a 1910 orphanage

Sadie Sillsby works as the assistant to the matron at the Raystown Home for Orphan and Friendless Children, pouring all her energy into caring for the boys and girls who live there and dreaming of the day she'll marry her beau, Blaine, and have children of her own. But when the matron surprises everyone by announcing her own engagement, Sadie is suddenly next in line for the esteemed job of running the orphanage.

There's one glitch. The matron cannot be married. She must focus her attention on the financial, legal, and logistical matters of the Home. Sadie's heart is torn. Should she give up her plans for a life with Blaine in order to continue serving these children who have no one else? Does she, a young woman who was once an orphan herself, have what it takes to succeed in such a challenging career? And when the future of the Home begins to look bleak, can Sadie turn things around before the place is forced to close forever?

"Full of characters who will touch your heart." --RT Book Reviews

"[A] heartwarming tale of compassion, love and learning to trust that God's plan is best. It reminded me a lot of the writings of Janette Oke." The Christian Manifesto

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