Cody

Day 3 of Blogging and I am enjoying catching up....gotta long way to go but I think I can do it if I keep this up for 9 more days. This third day of blogging is devoted to my big boy, our #1 son. This guy fills my life with so much emotion I could not begin to describe it all nor would I want to mortify a 14 year old boy with the intimate details of his life. Yes, I have a 14 year old. It is really hard to believe sometimes but it is true, he is growing up and fast. In fact the kid has gained about 45 pounds and grew about 7 inches since May. He wears a size 12 shoe and is just enormous. I cannot keep food in our house for as soon as it makes it into the kitchen (and sometimes it doesn't even make it to the kitchen) it vanishes. I didn't grow up with boys so this massive consumption of food leaves me in a state of awe most all the time. In addition to shooting up like a weed, Cody has had some ups and downs in many areas of his life. Now that he is a teenager, I walk a fine line of sharing details without losing respect for his privacy. Cody is an amazing guy, the gifts and talents that God as given him are incredible and more than anything throughout this year I have been continually reminded by the God who created him that HE has great things planned for our son. God orchestrated many miracles to bring Cody to us and as his mom I have the awesome responsibility of giving Cody every opportunity to fulfill the plans God has for him. That is not always easy to achieve as the parent of a teenager but I will never cease to remind Cody of what a miracle he is and how he can to some incredible things for God. I think as parents of teenagers one of the best things we can do for our sons and daughters is to remind them, that they were "wonderfully made by God" . How easy it is to constantly nag and criticize their attitude, lack of motivation and responsibility. We can easily slip into fussing constantly about their sloppiness and hygiene and while all that and important part of growing up, I have come to learn that what most of them need is just to be told they are loved more than they could imagine, they are amazing and they have the most incredible future ahead of them. One of the ways we have encouraged Cody to see beyond the difficulties of the high school experience is to give him a window into college.....we traveled in October to visit 2 colleges. Some might say, why would you do that at 9th grade? Well, we felt it was important to let him see that beyond the days of high school lie an exciting 4 years of being able to carve out a place where he can shine and be the man God has destined him to be. Our visit to these schools seemed to have encouraged Cody in the here and now and gave us hope that "this too shall pass".