11 Years. 11 Years? 11 Years!

I have been a mom for 11 years!!!! How does time go by so fast? My first baby, Gavin William, turns 11 years old today. He'll be going to middle school next year. Plans are in the works for him to move to his own room this summer. Everything is changing at lightning speed!

How can this possibly be? How can I be old enough to have an 11 year old? I actually was just shy of 21 when Gavin was born. Speaking of, where the heck did my 20s go? Oh yeah, I was busy being a mom and loving it!


So, my sweet little Gavin William was born on February 25th, 1999 at 7:38 PM. He was 8 pounds 1.6 ounces and 21 inches long. He was the cutest little thing I had ever seen and I still distinctly remember the first night and being up in the wee hours of the morning, sitting in a rocking chair at the hospital, feeding a bottle (the little stinker had no rooting reflex and breastfeeding proved to be more physically and emotionally exhausting than either of us could handle) to this tiny, spindly legged little creature and just being completely amazed by him. We actually have a picture of that night and his little legs sticking out from under the blanket and I swear I could just gaze at it for hours and remember that night. Brian and I, just kids really and there we were, starting our life together as parents.


Gavin proved to be an absolute delight to everyone. My cousin told me one day "Thank you so much for bringing such a great child into the world." Of course, I know it was the Lord that sent him here and I am so thankful that He blessed us with such a wonderful child. My Dad was absolutely thrilled, after having 3 daughters, to have a grandson. He was just such a joy (still is of course) in our lives.

We have the cutest videos of Gavin. That kid was dancing and loved music from the time he was about 4 months old. He would wiggle all over when music was on, rock back and forth to it when he got to where he was sitting and then full out dance once he could stand up. He just absolutely loved music. That may be why he has developed such a love for playing the guitar and is cruising through lessons. He now plays the acoustic and electric guitars and his goal is to play with the worship band at our church someday. Now that makes this momma feel great!

Gavin also loves sports and for reasons I can't understand or explain (Brian and I are uncoordinated and about as un-athletic as they come) he seems to just pick up quickly and be a natural at any sport he tries. He played soccer for a couple years, but decided he wanted to focus on basketball, since it's his favorite. He hasn't played soccer for years now, but everytime we see his old coach, he tries to convince him to come back. That makes him feel really good. His real passion though is basketball. The kid eats, sleeps and breathes basketball. He's actually playing on two different leagues right now. I'd say he's the Detroit Pistons biggest fan and absolutely loves to go to the games. I think he said he's been to 13 games now. We had an awesome experience where he and Riley were invited down on the court during player introductions and got to high-five the players. I sat in the stands and cried because he was so excited and just blissfully happy. It was such a cool experience and a friend of ours who is the sports writer for our local paper even put an article in the paper about it. It was just awesome.

Now, I won't pretend that this kid has always been perfectly behaved and never caused me to pull some hair out, but all in all he's an amazing kid. I am so happy to be his mom and so excited to see the man he will grow to be. My greatest wish for him is that he will know who he is in the Lord and that he will grow to love Him more and more everyday and live a life that is glorifying to Him. Playing that guitar with the worship band would be a great start and I look forward to that day.

Thank you, God, for entrusting this amazing child to me and I pray for wisdom to best help him grow into the person you want him to be!