Gratitude beyond Expression – a Child Protected

There are some things that are not covered in parenting books.

Just as we could never completely cover all the possible birthing scenarios there are in our book.  There are just an unlimited amount of things that can happen in life!

This is what I needed covered in one of my parenting books –

What to do when your 16 year old sneaks into Mexico and gets himself kidnapped.  Because that is exactly what my 16 year old did on November 11th.  But by the Grace of God and the Help of Angels, both from this side of the veil and the other side, he escaped.

I am still a little in shock, but every day I am just more and more full of gratitude.  Almost anything that happens makes me remember how close we came to potentially losing our son, whether permanently, or having him be missing.  Either way I am relishing the joy of having him home safe with me.

He is also grounded until he is married, so I get to spend a lot more time with him than usual.  🙂  Which is quite a difference from how it was before, he was off with his friends most of his free time.  Now he just goes to school and work and that is it.  Then we have been spending the Thanksgiving Break with Grandparents and just hanging out doing fun things together and just enjoying everyone!

You can see his enthusiasm!  (He actually is having a pretty good time.  We are just wearing him out wiht all the fun!)

SO blessed.

I don’t even know how to express it in words.  I feel like every day I get with him is a bonus day!

My heart breaks for those families whose children are not safe today, or for those who have a child who has passed to the other side and they are so missed.  I send them love and hugs.  May they have angels to attend them.

I actually love having teenagers!

I tend to talk to Mom’s with little kids and tell them I remember and miss those days, but I also love having older kids.  It is less physically exhausting, but a bit more mentally exhausting.

This has proven that point.

But I still love it.  I love having teenagers.  I wish Devon wasn’t quite such an adventurous spirit. We pray he has learned from this experience and will be more cautious.

It is fun to watch these boys grow up into men.  It is hard knowing the best way to do it for each boy.  They are each so very different.  My 2 other boys are WAY more cautious and would never do anything so crazy.  So parenting Devon is a unique challenge to be sure.