Can it be so?

Is it really possible that one can blink and sixteen years become history?  Gone are the days of wiping their nose, lathering up little pudgy fingers before dinner and saying bedtime prayers.  No more cuddling up with the same book in bed together night after night, playing with flashlights in the dark, giggling and tickling, singing 'Silly songs with Larry' or spraying them with the hose while they jumped on the trampoline or jumped out of the tree onto the trampoline, all the while holding my breath.

Can it be so that I've reached the final stretch of my parenting years and I battle not having done it 'perfectly'?  I do regret not being more patient or patient at all sometimes, not listening when they rattled on and on about what seemed insignificant to me and yet was so important to them at that moment that they just HAD to share it with me.  And they did.  And I listened, half-heartedly.  And I can't go back.

But I can go forward.

They celebrated their sixteenth with their old school buddies on a Saturday.  It was a bittersweet time because we aren't going back to that co-op this year.  That was a tough decision to make, but it was the wisest.
So, they asked if they could invite their school friends to a skate rink and that's just what we did.

But, the greatest gift they received was having their brother, Daniel, surprise them by driving here from Tampa and put himself in a box.  Isaac almost punched Dan in the head as he punched the top of the box!   They were so happy to see him.  It was the first time they'd seen him since he left on their fifteenth birthday and that made this one even more sweet!

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Hubby and I have 'joined forces' to work together this year...hey, so what if there's only two years left?  Working as a team is so exciting to me.  He's teaching Economics, Bible (a study he's doing with a few guys and the boys!), and also History.

We'll still be keeping Joshua and that interaction is so refreshing to them...they love him so much.