WARNING: SAPPY POST ALERT

You knew it would happen....I'd get around to sappy posting about J. I know, I know, all mom's are proud of their sons. But this guy has been thru some tough times in his 18 years and I'm proud of the young man he's become. When he was 5, his little world was rocked when we found out we were moving from Owasso all the way across the country to Bakersfield, CA. He was sad he'd have to leave his friends, but talks of Disneyland and the beach soon made that all better. Fast forward exactly one year later....dad has been offered a new job back home in Oklahoma! Woo Hoo! The celebrations we had!! We spent the next six years there. 1st grade until mid-6th grade before, well yeah, transferred again. I can barely type the words of how distraught he was when we told him. Never, in a million years, will I forget that night. I don't know who took it worse, him or his best bud Bobby, or Bobby's mom. Looking back now, I see it was all part of God's plan for our lives. He's grown into a wonderful young man. Would he have grown into that same man if we hadn't moved? Probably, but many of the kids he hung out with in his elementary school have not done so well and are not living a life pleasing to God right now.

He has always been my daring son. Don't tell him he can't do something. He was walking, er running at 10 months and never slowed down after that. He wanted his training wheels taken off his bike when he was 4 so he could "ride like the big kids". Even asleep, covers were thrown off, all stuffed animals landed on the floor, and when he woke up in the morning, it all began again. He has some weird habits too. Has a shoe fetish. His first Easter, I bought him a pair of black patent shoes from W-M. We called him "Mr. Shiny Shoes". That was the begininng of the shoe fetish. He loves shoes!! He's also pretty picky about his clothes. I haven't bought him anything other than t-shirts for years. When he was little, if the clothes "didn't feel right", he wouldn't wear them. He's still that way. He loves cologne, loves his truck, his ipod, his posting board at the Titan truck website. But most importantly, he loves God. He teaches jr. high boys small groups and will do anything his youth pastor asks him to do. Even if he doesn't want to. (btw, I posted a couple months ago about our yp resigning suddenly. Turns out, he was asked to leave and had been put on "notice" in Oct. We have a new guy now that he LOVES)

He's had numerous injuries. In 7th grade, he had a knee problem that put him on crutches 8 weeks. In 8th grade, he got tangled up with another runner at a cross country meet and suffered a very serious hip injury. Crutches, 8 weeks. 9th grade was accident free and he excelled at running. 10th grade, an ingrown toenail had to be fixed then a stress fracture in his heel put him in a cast for 4 weeks after being in a walking boot for 4 weeks. That was the end of running for him. The most bizarre injury was back in Dec. when he had the skateboarding mishap and bruised his thoracic nerve in his back/shoulder. He works out regularly and is quite buff, if I do say so myself. He doesn't drink soda, eat many sweets or pig out very often.

He hopes to be a physical therapist. He's been around it enough in his 18 years to know that would be a good career for him. He's compassionate, yet not wimpy....perfect for PT. Between my three turns and his two, he's pretty sure that's what he wants to do. However, in Texas, it's now required that you have your Doctorate for PT. Ask me in 8 years how he's doing.

Here's a few pics of him

The last pic is of us with him holding a scholarship certificate. We wish there were a couple more to go with it, but we're very thankful for this one.

Graduation isn't until a week from Saturday. I'll probably have a couple more sappy moments before then. I've been praying for God to help me to keep it together since the beginning of May. Just a few more weeks and I'll be free to have a meltdown. Then it will all be okay.

Happy Friday everyone.