Emily, Kirsten, Shelby
When I was a teenage driver, my dad gave me the "privilege" of driving a '72 International Travellall. It was the biggest vehicle on the road besides a semi-truck. Ours was a faded green color. It scared me to drive it because I always felt like there could be people living in the far back. It was also unpredictable. If my dad was around, it ran flawlessly. If my sister or I were driving it, we were likely to be stranded somewhere. In fact, my 16 year old sister was on her way home from a volleyball game and the car died outside a bar one night. The car was way too heavy for her to move. It was also the in the days before cell phones. She had to go into the bar and ask someone to help her get the car out of the road. The men were very nice, but talk about unsafe!!! Then she went back in the bar to call my dad to come and get her.
I remember hearing my mom say, "How did this happen? How did I become the mom of a 17 year old?" I thought it was a weird thing to say. But here I am saying, "How did this happen?" I look at my 6'2" son and I wonder what happened to that sweet little brown eyed boy. I see that little boy inside the amazing teenager. I see a tender heart and a desire to do good. I see honesty and kindness. I see him still sitting on his dad's lap and walking with his arms around me at the store. I see a hard worker with integrity and determination. I see a quiet boy and a deep thinker. I am proud of him and I am so grateful he is mine.
Today was track practice. A major storm rolled through the valley. Black skies. Hail. Blinding rain. They practiced for a while and then sent everyone home. Kyle did not have his cell phone because the battery was not charged. Christopher was at the school having tennis practice. They were in the gym because of the terrible weather. Kyle had options. Stay at the school under the awning, borrow someones phone to call me, or find Christopher. My boy came up with running in the storm 1 1/2 miles to our friends house. When I picked him up 30 minutes later, he was still soaked to the bone. Three very nice but unfamiliar people offered to give him a ride. People that are still talking about the poor abused boy running alone in a storm because his mom wouldn't pick him up or at the very least make sure he had a coat. I am waiting for the family services people to show up. He would not accept a ride(good thing). When walking to our car, he realized that somewhere on the mile and half dash, he had lost his shoes. He had his track shoes but not his school shoes. They had fallen out of his unzipped backpack. Who has time to secure a backpack when you are running in the rain!! So we went on a shoe hunt. We dodged traffic, and searched in the pouring rain for brown RocketDogs. Finally, we found one and then the other about 100 yards away. Lonely shoes waiting patiently to be retrieved. All this time, my Kyle has a smile on his face. What a boy!! 
