Phoning Home

By Clare Ogle, an MHS houseparent

Realizing that I won’t always oversee my kids is not the most fun lesson I’ve learned in life. To watch your child make mistakes is tough. To watch them make the wrong choice is difficult as well. And watching them live through the consequences of their actions isn’t any easier.

Trying to help my children and the boys in our student home navigate life has its ups and downs. Since we have Senior Division students, a lot of our guys are starting to make decisions about their futures—such as where to go to college, if they should go to college, and where they should work. We try to listen and guide where we can.

Not all of our guys look to us for advice, but some do. And that warms our hearts. Especially when they seek us out after they graduate.

Sometimes, it’s a quick text for a recipe we used to make. Other times, it’s about summer plans or buying a car. We have our first student graduating from college this year.

When he called us and my husband and I sat there listening to all of his future plans and how he chose the company he’s planning to work for, we couldn’t help but smile. I hope this is just a small glimpse of what it will be like when our own two boys call from college to talk to us about love, life, and their future.

As nice it would sometimes be to oversee many aspects of our children’s lives, I think the fact that I can’t makes all the other moments so much more meaningful. When our students reach back out after graduation because they want to, not because they have to, you know they mean it.