Guys š³ It happened. We have a teenager!!!! I can’t even fathom how we got here!! Wasn’t he just born?!
It has been SUCH a fantastic year for Dekker, honestly. He has grown and changed in some of the most fun ways I could’ve imagined as his mom! A very big shift this last year was his opportunity to attend youth! That became his lifeblood, which really couldn’t have been a better setup. At certain points in the year, he had five opportunities each week to be with one of his two youth groups, and it was just him. I can’t explain it, but it grew him so beautifully!
Dekker has become someone who loves babies, and willingly helps with them when needed.
He has gained quite a bit more freedom and independence, where he’s seen more movies, gotten many more special treats and outings, and he’s found his taste is music. Which, by the way, is often electronic, which I did not expect! It was literally just today that he said to me “I just appreciate the instrumental value.” Doesn’t that sound like him?
He will make a request for supper and then insert himself into the prep and cooking without being asked. Thats actually been a fun one! He liked Home Ec last year and it shows!
My favorite thing about Dekker right now is his true comfort in his own skin. He is one who tends to be a bit of an easy target at school, and while he still gets quite upset and hurt when someone heckles him, he doesn’t change who he is to pacify the pests. He will rock the things he likes and continues to be shamelessly himself. And I LOVE himself!!! š
My beautiful Dekker boy š How I love you. My oldest child. My oldest son. You are lined up so perfectly in the birth order. You fall exactly where you were meant to. Praise God for bringing you to us!!! Try as she might, Laela is not the oldest. That is you, son, and I am SO unbelievably proud to be your mom!
I hope you had the happiest birthday, albeit a weird one, and that you feel loved and celebrated by your family š We LOVE you, sweetheart.
Thirteen years. Man. Crazy.