Birthday Boy

Today I am grateful for my son Sam, for who he is, and who he helps me be. Today is his 15th birthday.

A recent post on my second blog "Late Bloomer, Slow Learner" titled A Late Arrival Comes Early is the story of Sam's delivery fifteen years ago today.

And a recent photo from our family pictures taken last September shows Sam looking nothing like the little infant he started as:

Since I took a break from my Z-A list today, how about a different kind of list?

Here are 15 gratitudes for Sam:

1. The opportunities that being a parent presents, and the gratefulness they bring.

2. The challenges that being a parent presents, and what I can learn in the process. 

3. The way he interacts with his little nephew Leo.

4. When he and our dog Oliver get playful with one another.

5. The fact that he lets me hug him. I strive for one a day. 

6. He is a creature of habit with things like making his bed every morning.

7. That he helps his dad and I balance each other out as parents.

8. He has shown me that he will approach the early driving experiences with reasonable caution.

9. Although injuries have slowed him down at times, he is overall a healthy teen.

10. As a middle school counselor, I have appreciated that I can ask Sam his thoughts on things 

and inquire what is done on certain topics at his school.

11. His blue eyes.

12. His smile and laugh (though usually quiet, you know when he finds something really funny).

13. The future direction that he has had for years already--an agriculture-related career.

14. He cares about his grades and takes care of his studies pretty much on his own.

15. How both his dad and I are evident in him physically and in other ways, but how he is also 

his own unique person.

Happy Birthday Sam! I love you.