My Man Child

On this day 14 years ago, Ron & I welcomed this little guy into our family (I did most of the work of the welcoming) and we immediately fell head- over-heels in love with our sweet boy, Gage.

In the blink of an eye, he grew from this...

to this perfect little pudgy thing. And then...

into Daddy's little buddy.

He fully embraced big brotherhood (twice).

He will do just about anything to make people laugh and/or roll their eyes
(especially the sisters).


And before I knew it....

He's nearly man sized and always wants me to wear flat shoes because he's officially taller than I am when I'm not wearing heels. And as you can see, he absolutely refuses to give a decent pose for a picture. This was try number 6, I think.

On several occasions, people have asked me what it's like to parent a teenage boy. They usually say it through gritted teeth and have a sneer on their face like, "How bad is it really?" Honestly, the thought used to scare me, too. And looking back over my own early teenagehood didn't make me feel any better (I turned it around by age 16, thank the Lord!). But the truth is it just keeps getting better and better! Just like every other stage of your child's life, you figure it out as you go. You make mistakes and swear to fix it on the next kid. But I have to say that teenage boyhood is the MOST FUN for this mama so far. He's walking in this weird little space between being a kid and being an adult. One minute he's doing flips on the trampoline and the next he's making decisions about what he wants to do with his life and filling out his High School enrollment form accordingly. He's chosen to take Latin next year, by the way. What in the world?! He constantly amazes me & Ron with his generosity and the way he handles his friends and peers with such care. He has always been compassionate, but we've seen it grow so much in him over these 14 years that now it just oozes out of him. He's a massive introvert and the biggest home body I've ever seen. He's also hilarious and way too smart for his own good.

Gage has done plenty of things to make me proud of him, but the thing I'm most proud of is his heart. I can see who he's becoming. I love him and like being with him more every day.

I remember one night when he was just a couple of weeks old. I was sitting on the couch, holding him and staring at every perfect thing about him because that's what new mommies do. And it hit me like a knife through the heart....

He's going to go to college someday and leave us! What will I do? I won't EVER be ready for that!

I burst into tears! I cried and cried until Ron came in, probably wondering what crazy postpartum thing he was going to have to deal with now. I told him what was wrong and he talked me down by saying something profound like, "It's gonna be ok. We've got a little time with him before he goes to college."

And now, here we are in this place where we mark time by how many Spring Breaks we have left with him. Four. Not nearly enough.

Happy 14th Birthday, Gage. You'll never know how much we love you. We're gonna spend the next four years trying to show you, though.