On (Almost) Ten Year Olds

I owe my son a post.  (Even though he has no clue this corner of the web even exists.)

He is nearly ten, and it is hard to believe a year has almost passed since he exclaimed with much exuberance, "This is an awesome family!  I hope I never have to leave this family!" after a mere three hours of dinner, park-hopping, and hot chocolate.  He is impulsive to the extreme, sometimes to the point where I have to stop him in the middle of his wandering, take his face in my hands, and remind him very sternly to F.O.C.U.S.  Sometimes it works immediately; sometimes it takes seven or eight or forty-six times of doing this within the space of ten minutes.

It can be quite exasperating.

But in the end, I don't mind a bit, because it is only a very small piece of who he is, this beautiful boy who is my first child.  He is the son I prayed for for several years, my precious firstborn who God knew ten years ago would eventually end up here with us.  Who knew, as I sat in my dorm room, nearing the end of my junior year of college, studying for finals and hurriedly finishing up papers and speeches and a HUGE debate project, that 1500 miles away my son was being born?  If there was one thing I could ask God to change, it would be for him to have been brought to me sooner, so I could have known the sweet little boy he was before he became the sweet boy he is now.  But I know God had a purpose, and I'm grateful for that.

He is the kindest child I have ever met.  He would give a stranger the shirt off his back without blinking or thinking twice.  He would give a rich man his most prized earthly possessions, no questions asked.  He is thoughtful and tenderhearted and giving.  He is not insecure by nature, and so it has been somewhat heart-breaking to watch him worry anxiously over his future; but it has also been awesome to watch him breathe a giant sigh of relief at being permanently adopted and learn how to relax and settle into a family all his own.

It's hard to believe I have an almost-ten-year-told.  But it is also wonderful and amazing and incredible and just downright fabulous.