The mother of a teenager!

I cannot believe it, but I am now the mother of a teenager! James was born 13 years ago now, at 12:02 a.m. on February 10th. It's amazing to me how long ago that seems and yet how recently it seems. I can hardly believe thirteen years have passed! I have to tell you that he is an amazing kid. Yes, he is a teenager, and at times he drives us crazy, but he is a child who loves the Lord and truly wants to follow Him. What more could we ask for? The rest will follow. My greatest prayer is that his convictions and love for the Lord will stay strong as he moves through these next several years, which I think can be so difficult. I know he is really missing his friends from Bartlesville right now. It is a hard time to not have any close friends nearby. He will have his three closest friends here over tomorrow night to spend the night (school is out on Monday). His request for his birthday was pretty cool. He wanted Kevin to come over and talk about his plans for leading the teens in a Bible study at church because he would like his friends to be a part of that. Then he wanted to play Wii and watch movies on the big screen in the backyard. Our weather has been perfect for that, so that is our plan for tomorrow night. Although, I don't know that Kevin is coming over.

Speaking of Kevin . . . he is such a HUGE answer to my prayers. One thing about moving at James's age was that we had been given some advice a long time ago that was difficult to follow at the time of our move. That advice was that you should really encourage a connection between your child and an adult that you trusted so that during their teen years, when they were mad at you or just wanted someone different to talk to, they would hopefully approach this other adult. We had several people in our lives that could have fulfilled that role in Bartlesville, but we came here and knew no one. On top of that, we did not have a youth group for him to attend at our church because of the size. We knew that we wanted a youth program as soon as there was a need. Well, thank you to Kevin who pointed out that there is a need already. We have James and he should have a youth program. In addition, Kevin stepped up and said he would do it. We think so much of Kevin and his wife, Jill. They have been a huge blessing to us and to Kaleo and to Eric and now to my kids. James really looks up to Kevin and is so excited that Kevin wants to do this. James is excited to invite his friends also, which is way cool! I'm excited to see where this goes for James and for the church in general!

So, today we start this ride of having a teenager (though I feel like in a lot of ways, it already started). In some ways, I am excited; in others I'm not, but I am eager to see how God carries us through and shapes us as we learn to be the parents James needs us to be during this time of his life! I feel so blessed that overall, I have a really great kid with a really great heart and with good priorities.