Andrew's Moment to Shine

For Thanksgiving Weekend, I'm featuring three of the blessings I'm most thankful for.

From our recent photo shoot, here are Andrew's pictures. He's 12 now and growing up before my eyes...which he almost looks into. Sigh, I'm slated to be the short mama with tall kids.

Andrew has matured into such a nice young man (most of the time). :-) What we hear from his teachers is that he continually shows respect and kindness to the other students. He often goes out of his way to do the 'little things' that need to be done without being asked. We were very proud to learn that last year he took it on himself to move the chair away from the desk that a wheelchair bound student uses. The teacher had planned to assign that job, but Andrew realized it needed to be done for the student to use the desk and just automatically did it every day.

Here's a smirk-giggle that I often see. As kind and helpful as he is at school and other places, we still have our run-ins at home. Even when he pushes my buttons, I am still amazed at how much I love this kid.

I don't think any pre-teen boy wants to know that he's still his mama's baby, but what can I say. When I look at him, I expect to see this:

Instead, I'm looking at an intelligent young man who can talk intelligently about politics, social concerns and books we both like to read. I'm not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the line he started to grow up.

I'm very thankful for my first-born baby boy. What a privilege to be your mother!