A recent visit to Madison made me keenly aware that my role of "mom" is slowly being transformed. While Tom and I have both feet deeply planted in parenting, I can sense movement toward something new. One foot is involved in the daily guidance (a.k.a. nagging), encouragement, feeding, and transportation of two high school girls involved in musical rehearsals, solo and ensemble contests, youth group, etc. The other foot is gently kicking our older two out of the nest. With Seth in his junior year at Calvin, and Jared now living and working in Madison, I've been thinking about this transition of my kids from childhood to adulthood, and my changing role from caregiver to counselor. I welcome this change in our relationship, and love that my boys call or text me often with conversations and questions about life, work, cooking, and of course, girls.

At times they call with happy news, sharing hopes and dreams...the stuff that brings me joy. At other times, their calls and texts are problems, issues or mini panic attacks that result in a panic attack for me. I worry, and wonder if I'll ever be able to stop worrying about my kids. Then I realize that as long as they are living life, with its ups and downs, and as long as I'm loving them, there will always be joys and trials.

Lately, I've been receiving stressed-out texts from Jared, who has been struggling with his new job. He's had very intense training that requires many extra hours of work, and has been given job responsibilities for which he feels unequipped. As with any new job, there is a certain amount of adaptation that happens for at least the first six months. In addition, he wishes he could pursue his other passion, i.e. web development. He's not so much unhappy with what his job is, but with what it isn't, and hearing his unhappiness zaps my own feelings of joy.

Thankfully, when we paid him our first visit last weekend, many of my worries were put to rest. Although he has had some stress and frustration, overall he's enjoying many aspects of his life in Madison that we can't always see from our vantage point. We visited his new home, an upstairs apartment located just two blocks from the Wisconsin capital building. We met his roommates, Will and Ben (also Notre Dame grads), two really nice guys who graciously watched our dog for us while we ran around Madison. We walked to "Graze," a downtown restaurant that specializes in homegrown Wisconsin food (cheese curds, beef and bratwurst to name a few), and we learned one perk of having an adult child. After many years of hearing Jared say, "Mom, I'm running a little short on cash, can you help me out?" it was surprising and so refreshing to hear him say, "Dinner is on me!"

On Saturday, we visited the capital building, with it's floors, walls and pillars of marble. We walked around in awe for about an hour, snapping pictures and capturing a glimpse of Wisconsin history. Seeing a capital building is such a treat, and we wondered why we have not visited more of them (including our home state's).

By far the most exciting and interesting part of our weekend was our tour of Epic Systems, Jared's new workplace. We drove 25 minutes to the suburb of Verona, and were surprised to find in the middle of the rolling hills and snow-covered fields, a huge complex of 15 buildings, 3 underground parking garages, and a huge grid of solar panels which power the entire complex. Epic, a healthcare software company, hires many young professionals and new college grads. While the work is demanding and challenging, Epic attempts to keep the workplace a vibrant and fun place to be.

Jared explained to us that the whole complex is divided into 3 campuses (with plans for two additional ones in the coming years), each with a different theme. Jared works on "the farm" campus, made up of the stable, barn and shed. He is happy to have a "stable" job (buh-dum, tshh!). Although each floor is filled with computers, offices and conference rooms, one might expect to find an actual horse behind any of the stable doors. Themed, beautiful artwork is found around every corner.

Epic has been reviewed by Forbes and is right up there with Google and Facebook for its "Cool Office Space," and during our tour, we could see why. We passed through so many different hallways as we wandered around and between the buildings, and were amazed at the uniqueness of each one. There are conference rooms with cow or animal print upholstery and glass tables over giant rubber balls. We found many fun touches throughout, including an Indiana Jones hallway, a building called "Heaven," fun mirrors, and a tube slide. The main cafeteria is gorgeous with huge windows and brightly colored picnic tables, and Jared reported that the food choices are great as well.

Epic employs nearly 7,000 people, and also hosts large user group meetings. The 11,000 seat auditorium that is used for these meetings as well as monthly staff meetings was a sight to behold. Epic is a private company, and uses its amazing facilities primarily for its own purposes. On the other hand, they are cognizant of the community they are located in, and purposely do not offer in-house daycare, workout facilities, etc., to its employees, so as not to take business away from the community of Verona. Overall, we were very impressed with Epic's headquarters!

In addition to visiting his home and work, on Sunday morning we visited a Presbyterian church that Jared has attended several times. The worship style was very similar to our home church in South Bend (SBCRC), and the people were warm and friendly. We enjoyed lunch with Jared and his friend Jenny, before saying our good-byes and heading home.

A few days after our visit, I received another text from Jared...a happy text: "Done with my training...finally, hallelujah!"

Life is full of ups and downs. So it is with parenting, regardless of which stage I'm in. Last weekend was one of the "ups." Summing up our visit: Jared has...a cozy apartment...good friends...a great town...friendly church...a "stable" job in a cool place. He's happy. And when my kids are happy, so am I.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1: 2-4).

Consider it pure joy: an Epic road trip