I’ve been praying for this little guy since before the womb. Praying, hoping, wishing, worrying, and thinking of what his life will be like.

It started in earnest in the womb of course. Please Lord, Full Term, 10 fingers, 10 toes, healthy and whole.

It carried on through infancy and toddlerhood. An amazingly creative child – yet as he grew older, there were differences in his speech and learning.

Praying through those younger years – ages 2-6. Will he be able to communicate clearly? Will he talk? Will people be able to understand him? Will his memory improve? Will he be able to read?

A huge creative, scientific, animal lover, we focused on all sorts of other ventures outside of Literature and Reading. I prayed –

He was five. I was given the advice to pray for him today, for this year, for 5 years, and for 15 years down the road. Really sit. Soak. Listen. And write down any impression that came to mind.

So today – I really shouldn’t be surprised that this is my last weekend with him. I knew. Back when he was five, that he would travel, write, and meet new people in his young 20’s. I do admit to laughing at God when he said he’d be a leader and a writer, the kid who couldn’t talk or read.

A couple of years ago he came to us and said – if there were no limitations – every opportunity was available – every choice could be granted – he wanted to grow up working at youth camps, moving forward to being a Camp Director.  Strangely, I was taken back. We live in a camp like environment with the lake and the ocean, moving here from the mountains. I assumed we had burned him out of playing camp counselor at home. No. That’s what he wants to do.

He has spent the last year and a half taking steps to get certified in the areas he wants to advance in, taking Community Leadership classes, and starting college this year, so that when he can really travel at 18, he’ll have his associates under his belt.

(Looking at ways to make his Final Essay for WR133? better.)

(Blue Shirt – Group of Wyldlife Leaders)

It has been a strange year, a strange week. I didn’t imagine that the turn of events would go this way. Earlier this year the Educational Service District called to say they were ‘erasing his homeschool record’, as he was going to school full time at college. A random phone call, and he officially was not a homeschooler with the State of Oregon. No certificate. No Pomp. No ceremony.

For the homeschoolers out there – you may know that one of the hardest questions to ask a young homeschooler is ‘what grade are you in?’ An answer might come out something like – “Well, the ESD says that my first year is when I am seven in September, and so by them I am in my first year, but by my age, I am in the second grade.”  I’ve had this conversation several times – “7 in September is the first year, testing 3rd, 5th, 8th, and 10th grade years, BUT you are 13 so you are going into the 8th grade in September, but by the ESD you are only in the 7th grade, but you are doing 10th grade work.” Ha. I thought it would get easier when they got older.

But – This year – My son is now 17, he should be finishing up his 10th year and taking his tenth year test with the ESD. However, he enrolled through the local school to go to the Community College, so he enrolled as a Junior / Homeschool student, taking College Freshman classes. But he wanted to do more, so he enrolled full time at the public school, to go full time at college, and was dropped as a homeschooler. So this week – is he graduated from homeschool? Is he finished with his Junior year at the public school that he didn’t attend classes at? He IS finished with a freshman year of schooling at college. Ya, it didn’t get easier as he got older to give a simple answer.

However, we were having a conversation yesterday with a couple of homeschooled – now college course taking young men. One piped up with – ‘It’s nothing really, we just ran out of curriculum.’

Monday. Monday he leaves for camp for the summer. It is a camp he’s worked at as the head life guard all winter. Not sure what the life guard team will be comprised of this summer. He’ll live in – be there through September. Next year he’ll live here, but go to school 40 minutes away and take a couple of extra classes with his full load to get his Associates by June. Then he’s agreed to take a paid internship at another camp that is for 13 months.

It’s Saturday. I want to drive to the market and buy 3 packets of bacon and get the smell wafting through the house with piles of waffles. That should get him upstairs. It’s also the only last day he gets to sleep in for the entire summer. He has two volunteer events today and a huge end of school year party that they call “Burning the Goat” but there are no goats involved . . . Teens. Tomorrow will be a full day of fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And then – poof. His car drives away.

I’ve known. Since he was 5. When I prayed and I wrote it down. This 6 foot 2 inch young man. Would be a leader. He would write. He would travel. I just didn’t know it would happen this fast.

Pray for your boys. Embrace Every Day. And the comment I’ve heard 476 million times – It WILL go faster than you think. Smile at those lil toddlers pulling all your plastic lids out of the drawer for the 6th time today.