TEENAGER ALERT!

Our house will be the same NO MORE! Elijah has turned 13! I have been wanting to write about this however lately I have had NO time for myself and things have been off the charts busy around here. Since I have a few minutes while my soon-to-be deviled eggs are cooking on the stove for our Thanksgiving feast this afternoon, I thought I would take a a bit to reflect on the life my our oldest son Elijah.

Where to begin? I wasn't exactly thrilled when I found out I was pregnant with Elijah. I had only been married a year and was so looking forward to just being married and vacationing and doing and going wherever we wanted to go...but apparently God had other plans. And to be quite honest, as my pregnancy continued I became more and more excited.

Pregnancy has never been easy for me. I don't carry very well and my babies always try to come early. I was pre-eclamptic and on bedrest and ended up delivering Elijah six weeks early. But OH MY GOSH...when he arrived, he was perfect.

Silver hair (seriously...I'm not kidding) and gigantic blue eyes and the sweetest little face ever. The nurses were all enthralled with him and several times a day we heard how they had never seen a baby with silver hair. He was incredible.

Elijah has been such a fun kid to raise. He is trustworthy, caring, and sweet. He is just so smart and constantly amazes us with his grades and study habits. WOW! He isn't ever afraid to try new things and is very outgoing and nice. When he started up at the middle school, I was especially nervous for him (opening his locker, getting to his classes okay, dealing with all the new kids) but you know what he said to me? He said, "It's going to be fun! I can't wait to meet all these new people."

Elijah also has made great decisions when making friends. I am so pleased with his group of buddies. I love when Aaron and Brendon come over and hang out. They are halarious and I always appreciate kids who are kind to Elijah's brother and sister and are respectful and like to have fun with Chad and I. I'm so proud of Elijah.

I can't believe he's 13. He is taller than me. Wears a bigger shoe size than Chad. His voice is getting deeper by the second. So many changes so fast! It's so hard to believe. Soon, he won't want to hang out with us as much as he does now and I hate that but know it's all part of the growing up process.

God bless my little teenager on his birthday. We sure do love him.