Aaaaahh!!! I'm surrounded by TEENAGERS!

Where has all the time gone? One minute they were babies... so cute and so small and so helpless... and now they're both TEENAGERS!! Yes, it's official. My baby girl just turned 13 today! My son turned 14 in June.

So, a new chapter in life begins. Well, it had already been unfolding for a while, but you know what I mean. It's official now. There's already been the phone calls, hanging out with their friends and spending the night or two or the weekend with friends. Did I mention the phone calls? Plus, there's the computer sites ... which I keep a very tight reign on. They know I check up on them, not because I don't trust them, which I do (to a degree) but because I worry about who's contacting them as well.

*SIGH* Looking back, it's amazing to me how far they've come. From diapers to potty-training, from crawling to walking to running and sports and bikes, from bottles to baby food to regular food .. and more food and more food! They can really eat! What happened to the kids meals we used to be able to get away with?? Now they're able to pack more away than me!

And growing up... first physically. I'm the tallest in my family and the wife is the shortest in hers, so now its been a race for the kids to pass her and catch me. They've done and passed her quite a while ago, but still have a ways to go to get to me, but not much! And they're active and healthy. It just seems all my energy went to them. It's getting harder to keep up with them.

Secondly emotionally... I used to worry so much that I over-protected them. That I sheltered them and didn't give them the basic street-smarts I felt they'd need to get along with others who are raised differently than they are. I worried because we don't have a middle school in our district. They go right from elementary (6th grd) to the Jr./Sr. High School building where they're exposed to more than I'd like. But I can say prayers are answered. They've conducted themselves in a way that allows them to make friends, but also stand up to bullies or conflict. They're not pushovers or targets. My daughter even is a protector. One time she stood up to three other girls who were picking on a "slow" student. My daughter saw it wasn't right and put the three in their place. The e-mail from the teacher letting us know what happened and how she handled herself and the situation made me very proud. As the grandmas like to tell me and the wife... "you raised them right". Lord, I pray that's true. Because we're heading into rougher waters and uncharted territory (for them, anyways).

Third mentally. My kids keep surprising me with how they think and the questions they ask. It's a good thing, most of the time . They want to understand everything... why things work the way they do; why others behave certain ways; why is that the answer, couldn't there be a better/different answer? I believe we, as parents, are helping them by giving them the tools to think critically and to test what they're being told/taught. Yes, even by us. It's something I didn't have a lot of growing up and had to learn for myself, so I hope I'm doing better by them.

Looking ahead can seem overwhelming. Soon, they'll be driving. They'll be dating and all the drama that goes with that. Part-time jobs and proms. Graduation and heading off for college. The mind reels if you dwell on the future too long. And I'm sure there will be some rebellion .. hopefully not as much as I did, but ya never know.

But I do know one thing for certain. God is in their life and they are growing in Him. As long as they lean on Him, everything will work out just fine I know I'll be leaning on Him quite a bit!!