I have so enjoyed watching him grow up. He turned 11 in May and is becoming his own person. His voice is lowering and we can now tell him apart from his sister on the phone, and he loves watching his muscles grow and getting hair on his legs and arms LOL! He is also maturing in his mind. He is making very wise decisions that kind of surprise me at times, like whom he wants to hang out with and money decisions--they are great decisions that me nor dad have pushed him into doing. He really isn't into hanging out with the "popular" kids--the kids who seem to want a ton of attention and sometimes do mean or inappropriate things to get their attention noticed. But, he is finding out it can be kind of lonely at times when others want to be around the popular kids, but he sticks to his guns and does his best to make wise choices regardless of what his peers are doing. Hubby and I will talk with him about what we observe other kids doing and how we feel about it, and then we ask him to think about it and decide if he wants to be a part of that. So far, he makes wise choices. Since we currently have two mortgages right now and can't spend money quite as easily as we could, he is doing a great job of understanding when we tell him we can't spend money on one thing because we would rather put that money towards something else. He is also great about spending his own gift and chore money. He never just spends to spend. In fact he usually has to take a few days to make up his mind about what he wants to spend his money on.
This week something neat happened to him at boy scouts. The patrols were voting for a new leader who serves for 6 months. In his patrol only one boy had signed up to be on the ballot, so naturally you would think that boy would be voted for by the other boys in his patrol. Evan came home from his meeting Monday with a shocked look on his face--several members in his patrol had wrote his name onto the ballot and Evan won the election! Roger was there when it happened, and said he and Evan were both stunned. Of course, we all felt bad for the boy who wanted the position, and discussing this with hubby, he said the boys are encouraged to vote for whom they think will be the best leader. Well, the story doesn't end here. Guess what my amazing son did? As newly elected patrol leader, he gets to pick who he wants to be his assistant and he picked the boy who lost the election. I commented on how nice that was of him, and he simply said of course he was going to choose him (because it was the right thing to do). This was all on his own!
Hubby and I have been discussing cool dude's maturing--we've really noticed the growth in the past year. We attribute some of it to homeschooling and his involvement in a really well run scout troop, however there are other factors, also. Other people have commented to us about his maturing this past year also. Now, don't get wrong, he is not perfect. I can attest to that with all the times in the day I have to yell at him to quit picking on his sister. But, to see this boy whom was always a "follower" beginning to turn into a "leader" regardless of what his peers are doing is something that just makes my heart soar. I am so proud of him, and pray that God is even prouder. My job as Evan's earthly parent is to try to raise him to be whom God is calling him to be. I have to try to recognize his talents and gifts and give him opportunities to use those so that he becomes stronger with them and will ultimately grow into a man who will serve God with all he is. I am so looking forward to the few years that I have left with cool dude to help him grow in Christ until he is out on his own. I'm also glad that for right now cool dude still likes to snuggle with his mom once in a while because I know all too soon that will come to an end. :)
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