My baby is 13

So as I sit here typing this my baby is officially 13.  He turned 13 yesterday and I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around that.  13 years ago life sure was different, I was a 17 year old girl that really had no idea where her life was headed and really didn't have a plan on how I was going to get wherever it was I was going.

Today I'm 30 and  while somedays I feel like that 17 year old girl, life is really good.  God blessed me with such wonderful parents growing up.  I remember the day I told them I was pregnant with Dakota.  Had it not been for them, especially my mom, I wouldn't be the mom that I am today.  They never once suggested anything other than keeping him from the beginning.  While I'm sure it wasn't what they had hoped for they stood by and supported me.  I never realized it at the time, but looking back I can see how they really put their lives on hold so that Dakota could have the best start to his.

I was fortunate that I had done well enough in school that I was able to go to school part time and still graduate with my class.  In fact my GPA my senior year was a 4.0, if only I had tried that hard my previous 3 years.  Mom took care of Dakota on the days I was in school,  she helped me with him at night, she helped me with him when he was sick.  If Josh and I both had to work the same hours, you guessed it, she watched him for us.  She was always there when I needed her.

She was always self-sacrificing, the true meaning of the word.  If you ever want to see the love of Jesus active on this earth you can see it through the way my mom raised us kids, and still raises her grandkids today.  We were always first, always cared for, and yet she disciplined us and taught us manners.  She also taught us how to love God.  She read my Bible to me, she took me to church and all the youth functions.  More often than not she went without so we could have.

So as I sit here reflecting on the last 13 years one thing was constant, the love from my parents.  If I ever questioned anything it was never their love for me.  And I pray that my kids feel the same.  That as Dakota enters these ever so difficult and trying years as a teenager that he knows without a doubt that he is loved and that he is always safe at home.