My Baby Boy Turned Into a Man When I Wasn't Looking!

When I look at him my eyes see a young man; but my heart sees the little boy who during an ER visit for stitches in his chin looked up with terror on his face and crocodile tears in his eyes with great sobs gasp, “I …ahh…just… ahhh …wanna give… my ahhh… mommy a huugg.”

We’ve spent the past couple of days upstairs, his domain during his junior and high school years, going through closets and drawers. His idea…the sorting through of clothes he no longer wants to keep, tossing out long forgotten, broken toys that have avoided the trash bin by hiding in the crevices along the back wall. Pointing out to me the things I can pass along to his nephews, things he wants saved, organizing one last time.

Why do I have this catch in my lungs? It’s not like a hard blow…you know the kind that knocks the breath out of you; still I find it difficult to breathe normally. Just the thump, thump, thump beating in my chest as the time draws ever near for him to report to Fort Leonard Wood.

I’d been trying to get pregnant for two years when I found out that I couldn’t have anymore children. I was devastated and at the age of 23 had a complete and radical hysterectomy. Two years later I was a single mother with a partial education. Over the next ten years…life moved on as I quenched the desire for more children, joined the Navy Reserves and got an education. Funny how God works things out isn’t it? Off and on through the years I had prayed for a child. I could raise another right along with Richard, by myself. Problem was…all I knew was that I was praying to the God that lived in my great grandfather’s Bible.

Then Jimmy came along and introduced both Richard and I to the Lord. First Richard was saved, then me…then marriage. Can you believe it? Nine months after we were married on a Thursday night we found ourselves rushing to the hospital and in the wee hours of Friday morning a security guard told us the only baby doe in the nursery was a baby John Doe. We had a son! We had a son!

I can see that day as clear as if it happened yesterday. I can feel him the first time I held him, I can smell that sweet fresh baby smell just after bath time, I can hear his first “dada,” his “first I wuv you.” I held him for six months straight! I just could not imagine that God would bless me so abundantly, so quickly after I became a believer.

Sitting here, I see snapshots in my mind of pee-wee football, an ATA World Championship, golf, bowling, hunting and fishing excursions with his dad and brother (along with the stories of the one that got away) band and choir competitions, more football, more martial arts…wins, losses, triumph, heart break... I never realized time was slipping through my fingers.

As we had senior pictures made, ordered invitations, cap and gown…I told myself I was ready for this, but then I was still expecting to pay for college and thought he would be home regularly to at least do his laundry. I never expected the Army! We had talked about it when he was in the 9th grade and again in 10th. I was military…it was good for me…but my war was Desert Storm…this one is different, more difficult, more casualties.

As he excitedly talks about his future, about boot camp, AIT, and with a bit of hesitation... the possibility of being deployed to the war zone... and then coming home after four years and becoming a police officer…that catch in my lungs returns.

I have prayed for him his whole life, even before I knew he would be mine. I am a woman of faith, I know God has a plan, He has the bigger picture. We raise them to be independent, make their own decisions and then they go off and do it!

My question is…did it happen over night or so gradually that I didn’t notice until just now? My baby is a man…thump, thump, thump another day closer to boot camp…another day closer to MP school…another day closer to that first duty station.

What is it they say? HOOAH….Army Strong…
Oh my! Army mom!
Thump… thump… thump.

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” ~NIV

Pray For Your Children's Future Spouses

One of the best pieces of advice I received after becoming a Christian was to pray for my children’s spouses. My son was 11 at the time and who he would marry had never even crossed my mind. I remembered asking Ms. Lois - oh how I loved Ms. Lois! - what was I supposed to pray and how.

She led me in my first prayer for Richard and his future wife. To provide for him a Godly wife, that if she was not a Christian to put someone in her life to lead her, to begin to prepare her now to be a helpmate, a good and Godly mother for their children, to provide for him a woman who loves the Lord, with a soft heart, who earnestly seeks His will in her life and the life of her family, and to lead them in the path that they would meet and know they were the meant for each other. It became one of the prayers I said on a regular basis. Sometimes a sense of urgency would press upon me and I would pray for that faceless, nameless little girl who would one day be my daughter-in-law, that whatever she was facing right then in her life that God would keep His hand upon her.

I think back about how it looked to us like he wanted to date every girl in Central Arkansas before he finally settled down. Occasionally he would bring someone to the house for lunch or dinner but we’d never see her again. I’ll never forget, he went frog giggin’ - yes frog giggin’ one night with a bunch of his friends and he came home talking about this girl he met and that was it...he was hooked! She gigged more than frogs that night.

When he began using the "L" word I knew it was time for me to get to know this girl a little better. She had been to the house but seemed a bit shy and reserved. Of course, we are such a loud, energetic bunch I really don’t think she stood much of a chance. I began meeting her for lunch periodically and I soon knew that this was the girl I had prayed for - because even I was beginning to really love her.

She was intelligent and had a sense of humor - two things she definitely needed to survive in the Kyzer clan. She was generous, kind, sweet, and I could go on and on. Can you believe she even made sure to include me in the wedding plans and preparations? I even got to go to the photographer’s studio with them the day her wedding photographs were made. Never once did she make me feel like I was just the mother of the groom. It was not just her wedding - it was their wedding. That was just the beginning...

Richard and Cheri have been married for almost 9 years now. (WOW, has it been that long?) They have two wonderful, bright, talented, and lively little boys; Hunter and Gage. Still to this day I could not ask for a better wife to my son, a better mother to my grandchildren, a better daughter for me. Yes, God went way above whatever I could ever have imagined or expected. It’s just like Him, isn’t it?

So today, I am passing on that gem of a piece of advice I received so long ago from my "spiritual mentor." Pray for the future spouses of your children no matter how old they are. Do it today, do it now!