Look at that smile...

This has to be one of my favorite pictures of my oldest son (on the left), with his cousin and best friend. On May 27th, both will graduate from high school. I'm still waiting for it to really hit me that my first-born is graduating, and moving off to college in just a few short months. It's so weird that we can be happy and sad at the same time. This is definitely one of those times. Happy because he has made it through 12 years of school, and yet sad that he'll be off to college soon and not around as much. One of the things I already think about is how much I will miss him being at church with us every Sunday, worshipping with us (tears are streaming down my face as I write this). I imagine myself looking down from leading worship and thinking, "where is Karl?" Some of the other things that come to mind right now that I will miss is hearing him play his guitar almost every night, him asking for a haircut (except I won't miss being asked to do it when I'm ready to go to bed), long talks about his future or about life here and now, hearing him give advice that sounds so "grown up", listening to him laugh about the goofiest things with his friends, telling me about something funny someone did and hearing him laugh about it-- I love his laugh! Or, telling me about how he shared his faith in class. I'll miss opening his door to tell him good-night and seeing him reading his bible. I'll miss the way he starts to put his arm around me then throws in a little head-lock (not tight - just loving that I am shorter than him and fit there perfectly). I may even miss telling him to clean his room - nah! Well, maybe. But, one thing is for certain, he's in good hands (God's hands) and I couldn't ask for a more wonderful son. I pray college is a wonderful experience for him. He's a very special gift from God and I can't wait to see what God has in store for him.