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Hellos and goodbyes: Some say this is the constant in a family life of variables. Hello baby, goodbye family of two. Hello toddler, goodbye baby. Hello pre-school, goodbye toddler…and on it goes until and after the child becomes an adult. And just when is that young person an adult?

Becoming an adult seems to take so much longer than in the past. The author Colin Hansen in: “The Hansen Report: Is 26 the new 18,”(outofur.com) gives examples of later age onset of adulthood. This includes the fact that insurance companies are now being mandated to provide health coverage for a young person on the parent’s health care policy to the age of 26 years old.

Cultural definitions of adulthood vary and change. The act of saying a type of goodbye to one stage of life as another stage matures, no matter how slowly, does not change. Our newsletter contains views meant to be helpful to our readers in our lives of hellos and goodbyes. To that end let me quote words for thought in our lives of change:

"There are some things learned best in calm, and some in storm." - Willa Cather

"The best way out is always through." - Robert Frost

"Once I dropped a tear in the ocean. When I find it is when I'll stop loving you." -Unknown

‘When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” – Alexander Graham Bell

“Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; Love her, and she will keep you.” Proverbs 4:5 & 6

There is a bridge to hold on to over the gap between here and there. Deep contentment in God is a gift loved ones give children of any age. Seeking God and cooperating with God to first and always keep us deeply filled in Him plants us in the assurance of God’s commitment to us. This living deeply content in Him, though moods and scenery may change, provides a bridge; a bridge we know as unfailingly secure as we span our hellos and goodbyes.

Compliments of Practical Family Living, Inc.

P.O. Box 1676, Appleton, WI 54912 (920) 720-8920

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