When I signed up for this blog, I thought it would be fun to write about the goings-on in our household, but it turns out there is so much going on, I really didn't have time to blog about it. :) That was about 9 months ago, so I thought I would give it another shot. I hope whoever reads it finds something they can take away from it - humor, wisdom, or whatever it is they might be in need of.
For those who don't know me, I am a 37-year-old mother of two boys, ages 17 and 9, and I have been married to my wonderful husband Steve for almost 13 years now. For those of you doing the math in your head on that one, I was a single mom when I met Steve and he was kind enough to adopt my oldest after we got married. Let me just say right now that single parenthood is the toughest job you'll ever love. I think one of the military branches used to use that as a tagline, but I think raising a child by yourself is the clear winner here. You do your best to provide for your child to give them everything they need and some of what they want, and you end up acting out the roles of both parents sometimes.
My kids are the center of my world. Brady, my 17-year-old, is growing up so fast right in front of my eyes. Last Tuesday Steve and I accompanied him to begin his paperwork for enlistment in the U.S. Navy. When he told us he was considering going into the military, I was TERRIFIED at first. Given the instability of world events that seem to only intensify every time you turn on the news, I was not crazy at all about the idea of my firstborn running headlong into it, but as a parent, I knew that I was not the one in charge here. God is, and I have to trust that He will protect him for me. I also have to remember that my children are "on loan" to me from Him and it is only my responsibility to raise them up and take care of them in the time I have them. That's a hard thing to remember, but I try.
Our youngest son, Noah, is who we call our challenging child. I think sometimes that God gave us Noah to teach us more about patience and perseverance. He is a sweet, sweet boy and has a wonderful sense of humor and a unique take on the world. He is inventive, creative and loud, and he prefers that his room look like a tornado hit it most of the time, much to the chagrin of my type A personality. He knows more about our computers than we do and is afraid of nothing. And when I say nothing, I mean NOTHING. We took him to the Wild West Fest Thursday night, which is a 5 day celebration leading up to and including the 4th of July in our town. They always have a pretty good carnival, so Steve and Noah each bought an armband that let them ride all the rides they wanted for $20 each from 6 to 11 p.m. I am more of a Ferris wheel kind of girl, so I shelled out my $3 for tickets for that. That kid rode on every ride he was tall enough to ride, and more than once on all of them. He even outrode his thrillseeker Dad which is hard to do. The one downside to Noah is that he has a temper like no other. Okay, two downsides . . . he is also more hardheaded than me and his dad put together. Pretty funny of you, God, I see the humor now. LOL
So this gives you an idea of what my kids are like. Next time I'll write about how Steve and I met.
