Peace....not as the world gives

I took all 10 children on the little bus down to the beach.  We stopped by my favorite tienda to buy sandwiches for the picnic.
I watched all the children sliding down the sand hill into the river that feeds into the sea.  Ephraim is 18 now and he played as rowdy and jovial as all his younger siblings all the way down to Elsie who is 4. The baby slept on my lap on the shore. Teresa had come along.  She watched me for a minute and said,  "you are happy for you children? "      I couldn't help sighing when I answered,  "oh, yes".   
I was thinking about how happy we all were together.  I was thinking that we might not be together like this again for a long time, maybe never.
Havilah is 16 and in a few days she is flying away to help cheer her papa and care for her grandparents.  We will join her and be reunited with Leon but Ephraim will stay behind in Laguna Verde.
We have always been together.  It seems like this new period in my life snuck up on me.  Am I really entering the phase when the children start to leave home?