The Grand Adventure

This is how our little cowboy greeted us yesterday.  Notice the boots on the wrong feet.  We were in the middle of getting ready for church, and Jeremiah had gone ahead and picked out his own outfit.  The fashion sense of a two year old continues to surprise and delight.  Isn't that what the best about life is all about?

I just recently had a conversation with a young man whom I knew during my campus ministry days.  He is in the exhilarating bliss of living the grown up life, newly married, gainfully employed.  Soon he and his lovely bride will travel to London to visit family and see the Olympics.  See the Olypics?!  Are you kidding me?!  How cool is that!  I celebrated with him the adventures of youth.  And that is exactly what I told him:  Have adventures while you are young.

It is my best advice to young people.  I have shared it numerous times over the years.  One of my most recent sharing moments was my cousin's graduation party.  Each table had pens and cards with instructions printed on them to share wisdom for Landry.  I told him to have adventures while he is young because it becomes more complicated as one takes on more committments.  It's harder to just pick up and go when you are married; there is a whole other person whose life is affected by your decisions.  And then once you have kids. . . .  Well, that is an adventure all its own.  That's what I told Landry.  Having children is its own adventure..

Yesterday this truth hit me in a fresh way when Jeremiah walked into the room in his "Go West Young Man" get-up.  Children are an adventure.  A wonderful adventure.  A GRAND adventure.  Everyday I feel so honored that I get to be those rough and tumble boys' mom.  I get to see them grow into persons of individual tastes, talents, abilities.  They are all so unique.  Each one brings me joy, and the joy tastes so different depending upon the boy who brings it.

I never would have imagined God would bless me with all boys, and certainly not three.  But life with three boys continues to surpise and delight.  I don't have to travel the world to be amazed.  I just look in my back yard.  Or in the living room.  Or around the kitchen table.  The bathroom is not surprising or delighting.  Little boy bathrooms can get pretty disgusting.  But everything else brings wonder and excitement to my small corner of ordinary.

I try to enjoy the gift of being mom to so many boys.  I know the time is fleeting.  I know this season, this wonder, this joyful experiment won't last forever.  There will soon come a time when they won't want to be held close, or kissed all over the face, or hold hands in the parking lot.  As long as I can do those things, this is the best adventure of all.  And when they are too old for such silliness with mom, there will be new adventures waiting.  But the quality of those times depends much upon living today's adventure well.  So here is to making each day GRAND, and enjoying every minute of it!