As a young girl I would dream about what my son would be like and the characteristics he would have inherited from his dad and me and what he’d look like and how he’d treat his little sister and grandparents.  What I imagined wasn’t even close to the young man who lives in my home today; he is much, much more than I ever imagined he could be.

He’s a son who has never caused me to look away, as if I didn’t know him; he’s always been kind, even during the times when he didn’t know how to “hold things together” all that well, he was always aware of his actions and when it warranted, he admitted feeling remorse. 

Abbie wrote a paper about her big brother last year and one of the points she made was that, “Tanner isn’t someone who keeps a lot of friends around, he has a few friends and they are the luckiest kids because his loyalty to them is unending or unwavering and yet, he never loses himself to a relationship; he is who he is and if you’re not someone who will accept that, you’re probably not going to be on his short list of true friends.”  She wrote that when she was 12 and he was 13.  I felt it was profound and right-on-the-mark.

There is nothing in my life that I enjoy more than sitting in the dark audience of a play and watching my son perform.  Whether he’s a cowardly lion, the Cat-in-the-Hat or an orphan named, Oliver, he is transformed on stage and sometimes I have to remind myself that the person I’m watching is the same guy who had Honey Nut Cheerios at our breakfast table that morning.  I am literally in awe of his talent and no matter how much I am tempted to push a little for him to have a career in acting, I am aware that he needs to be a kid and he needs to be able to grow into the man and decide himself if that’s a life he would choose.  Maybe that’s where other mothers of talented kids have gone wrong; maybe their own ambitions get in the way of the big picture, the fact that their children still have so much more growing and maturing to do before they’re thrown into a career.  I don’t know, I don’t have those answers, only more questions. 

I just know that the 15 year old boy who I am blessed to call my son, is more than a dream come true; he’s my reality and I couldn’t be more proud.

Be well.