Adam the Adult

It's All About Jesus

He turned 18 today.  How can that be?  I remember the day his mother brought those little booties into the apartment and announced he was on the way.  That was only the other day, wasn't it? 

The earth has circled the sun many times since that day; we've seen him crawl and walk and run and play and grow up into a smart, funny, thoughtful young man who has a strong desire to be and do right.  We've laughed with him, cried for him, held him when he was hurting, gnashed our teeth when he was driving us crazy, hugged him when he made us so proud, trembled with anxiety when he tried new things on his own and we couldn't be there to make sure he'd be all right, sighed with relief when we realized that he was careful and cautious and ever-so-observant.

Yet still we have fears and anxieties for his future, wondering what will happen, what challenges he will face, what obstacles he will need to overcome, what ups and downs await him in his adult life.  We hope he has been prepared.  We pray for his soul; we pray for his life; we place our hope and our trust in God to watch over him when we cannot.

And we celebrate the achievement of the years he has attained.

Funny how different it is when it's your own kid that comes of age.  Everyone else's kid turning eighteen - well, that's fine and dandy and special and cool.  But my kid!  My kid!  I remember holding him just a few seconds after he was born! I remember holding him on my chest all night as he slept!  I remember worrying so much about him the first time he got sick, the first time he got hurt, the first time he ate a real meal, the first time we celebrated Christmas with him, the day he crawled, the day he walked, the day he ran, the day he went first went to school, the first time I realized that he had to go out into the real world and deal with real people, become his own person, establish his own personality.

Does a parent ever feel ready to let go of a child, to watch them grow up and leave home and become someone outside the immediate circle of the family?  I think I'm ready; some days, I'm ready to pack his bags for him and help him out the door; other days, I'm enjoying the fact that he's still around, playing piano or laughing at the silly things on YouTube or singing songs in Latin or entertaining his friends with board games.

Every Writer Needs a Laptop!

It's the beginning of his Journey, and I can only hope and pray that his mother and I have adequately prepared him for it.  I know we've tried.  We brought him up in our faith and tried to help him find his own. We tried to make sure he had all his physical and mental and emotional and spiritual needs met, as best we knew how.

It's getting close to that time when it's all up to him.  We pray to God that his journey is safe and meaningful and educational and rewarding.  We look forward to seeing what else God has in store for him.

He likes to learn; he likes to write.  We hope that he finds fulfilment in the things he does, in what he learns, what he writes, what he shares, and with whom he finds along the way to share it with.  God bless him.