The marriage of your children opens up endless possibilities

Decade birthdays have always rattled me — am I where I should be in life? Is that another gray hair?

At 30, it was the fear of getting old (can’t believe I thought that), 40 was about accepting the inevitable changes four decades bring, and 50 is just learning to not let the barrage of applications to join AARP annoy me!

But now another milestone has occurred. Our last daughter married her sweetheart of six years in a beautiful ceremony overlooking rolling hills of grapevines near Salem, Ore. last weekend.

It took place almost a year to the date from our younger daughter’s wedding last August.

So, within one year, their dad and I have officially been retired from our formal parenting duties and are now second in line to their husbands.

On one hand, it completes a parent’s journey. We cared for them as a newborn while overcoming constant sleep deprivation; pretended to be braver than them on their first day of school, helped with homework and sat on the sidelines of endless sporting activities.

Then the sleepless cycle began again when the babies became teenagers, then 16-year-old drivers, followed by slightly naïve college students.

Still, it is hard to close the parent chapter until marriage closes the book.

On the other hand, it’s as it should be and everything most parents hope for. The marriage of your children is a bittersweet ending to a productive and content time in your life.

In reality, it marks a happy new beginning for us.

Now we have the bigger family we always wanted – the sons we once hoped for – and it has brought their dad and I full circle.

And without any college tuition or weddings to pay for, travel books and magazines now dominate our coffee table.

For some reason, I feel an adventure coming on. Let the next chapter begin.

– Kelly Ruhoff

Editor