13

In two days my son will be 13 years old. We were given a gift when this four month old bundle of dark hair and eyes that totally disappeared when he smiled was carried off that plane from Seoul, Korea. He has taken us down paths we never thought we would travel....and some that we would rather NOT travel. He is bright and funny, a gifted soccer player with a player's determination that belies his off field personality. He has no interest in the girls around him....yet. He thinks chores around the house are a total waste of his time. Reading bores him. He plays the trumpet in the school band only because it got him out of the required chorus or Music class. He is becoming interested in the world around him and asks the kinds of questions that I think are making him a responsible citizen of the world. Questions about why things are the way they are, how they came to be and what could change. He loves a good joke....and an occasional bad one. He is a rock and roll lover wannabe who suffers in a family that prefers country music and show tunes. He dabbles in writing....but not enough to make a statement....yet. He has the kind of quiet leadership qualities that cause people to look up to him more than he knows. He has always been shy....a kid who stops at the precipice of a new challenge to survey the 'lay of the land' before jumping into the fray. His sister makes him absolutely crazy but I really feel that if she needed it, he would be a protective force in her life. A school psychologist (who is a friend) told me she sees him in the halls at the middle school, happy and silly and surrounded by friends.....a nice kid. I am SO glad she was able to give me that visual picture to carry in my head. I refer to it often when we struggle with the preteen angst at home. And there is LOTS of preteen angst.

So he will be 13 in just two more days. I am proud of him. I am proud of the child he was and the teenager he is about to become. I am proud of my son. Happy Birthday.......