14

My baby!!  I can't believe he is 14!!  Many of you know that raising a boy....this boy... is proving quite a challenge for me.  This whole boy thing....and teenage boy mentality... is baffling.  But then sometimes, I sit back and listen to him talking to me about computer components, and video games.  I watch him on stage as the lead in his play or watch him in a concert or at church.  I watch him at times being Mr. Social and other times...Mr. Socially Awkward.  I watch him get annoyed with the woman at church trying to befriend him....but tolerating all the women in the choir hugging him.  I realize that despite the setbacks...he is really a smart kid, a funny kid, a good kid with a good heart.  He is a diamond in the rough....and he needs a whole lot of polishing....but I am starting to feel like we might get there.

He has lessons to learn...about so many things....  I look at the things that are driving me crazy, but then I look at the progress he's made.  I look at his impatience, his sensitive nature and then I look at his keen wit, his determination, his talent for many things.  

Then I look at his good, kind heart...which in the end is what I love the very most.  I look at the fact that in the end...amidst all the struggles that a teenage boy must wrestle with...in the end, his good and caring heart usually does the right thing in the things that truly matter.....and I know we have a way to go....but I know we are on the right path.....and we will get there.

There are times I look at him....and I miss my sweet little boy...who was obsessed with anything that went around.  I try to remember when that little guy turned into this big guy....who sometimes just seems foreign.  I look at him......and often just can not fathom what he is thinking.  Maybe I will always feel a little bit like that with him.  But I know that I will always try to understand what is going on inside that brain...and I know that I am so very proud of my 14 year old guy!!