Ethan has had a LONG year of school. He began the first part of August, and tomorrow (the middle of JUNE!!!) will be his last day of school. He is excited to be done. I'm excited for him to be done. I'm looking forward to having all my children at home. I'm looking forward to not doing the drop-off and pick-up routine. I am looking forward to connecting with my son. As each of my children has come home they have had to acclimate to the pace of life here,and expect Ethan will have some trouble with it. He will assume that since he is home he shouldn't have to work. He will be impatient with the needs and desire of those around him. He will push against the restriction of family life, in other words, meeting the needs of others will be inconvenient to him. He will probably be a pain in the butt - for awhile. But under that. He's a really great kid, who is just beginning to think big thoughts and really question the world. He wants to please and have a connections with his family AND he wants to be independent. He is nearly 12, and sometimes 8 and sometimes 35, and he will be taller than me soon. The years ahead of him remind me that junior high was one of the most trying seasons of my life. This becoming is difficult business, and I feel so humbled and unprepared to walk my children though the new season. Diapers, baths, and stories seems so easy in comparison. (Though talking to my baby sister about life with newborn is a good reminder that it ain't easy at all. ) This parenting an (almost) adolescent seems weightier, and I really really want to do it well. And I have just enough parenting experience to know that I'll screw it up regularly...just, hopefully, not permanently. And that is why there's always Jesus and a good therapist....