Boy Noise and Bump Day

Today my son has officially been a missionary for 6 months! Woo hoo! You missionary moms, both former and current, know that I wouldn’t want him to be anywhere else in the world but where he is, and doing what he is doing. However, I have my moments of really missing him, as any mom would. We have made it to the ¼ mark – today he will commemorate that by participating in the traditional 6^th Month Tie Burning Ceremony. I will commemorate it by writing here.

To my young mom friends – not to be completely cliché, BUT the time flies faster than you will ever know. Soon your little sons and daughters will be on their way to the MTC, or to college, or to get married.

It seems like last week I was shopping for his little teeny white church shirts and tiny little baby boy ties.

Wasn’t it just a few days ago that Brian was driving me crazy running around the house making messes in every room or making his sister scream in frustration (oh wait - he did that up until he left 6 months ago, by the way)? I must confess that I miss the boy noise, boy smell and boy mess.

Now the boy noise is replaced with the immeasurable joy of receiving the Monday morning Emails full of inspiration, lessons learned, and stories of touching lives. My blue-eyed energetic son is now spending his time pedaling across “Carolina”, learning Espanol and riding through near-ghettos searching for the pure in heart. He is becoming a man, day by day, frustration by frustration, and blessing by blessing. It’s Parental Pay-off Time, worth every bit of frustration, every argument about Boy Scouts, every prayer, every Family Home Evening lesson, every Sacrament meeting battle, and every tear that came before it.

The tears now are tears of Gratitude to my Heavenly Father for the blessing of watching this boy transform into a man of God.

I guess I just had to wait a little while….