Thirteen

Thursday, August 27, 2015

He's in that in between stage now.  One moment boy, the next man.  It's hard to believe that Zai has turned 13, yet I can certainly attest to his growing up.  Every so often I will glimpse him out of the corner of my eye & think he is his father.  I've even called him Dave a few times!   
Birthday Celebration #1!
His birthday was a special time with two celebrations.  It began on the Sunday night before with a visit from his close friend & his family.  There are nine children in that family & so we love to invite them over because it is an instant party!  Each of my children have a special friend among the nine who match up in age.  The other children in their family are eager for us to get foster children around their age so we can have more matches....smile! 



As is usual, his birthday- day celebrations began early on the morning of the designated day.  Our traditional birthday hunt was so much fun.  I gave more cryptic clues this time to find his gifts.  While Zai was a little lost at first, Jud got each one & was about bursting with not telling his brother what it meant. 


Zai's big gift this year was a toolbox.  Recently at church, one of our deacons preached a sermon about men.  One of his points was that the term teenager came from Hollywood.  He noted that we often hold low expectations of our teenagers.  While we often will bestow the privileges of young adults on them, our expectations are sorely lacking.  Zai took this to heart.  He deplores the term 'teenager' & has deemed that he is a 'young man' now.  We have raised our expectations of him & each time he has shown us that he has the ability to do as we ask.  No, he is not perfect, but he is a good boy & strives to do the right thing most of the time! :) Zai is already putting his toolbox to good use & so far is keeping everything together in it ( he is rather absent minded at times).


Ellie is definitely NOT a morning person...

Zai gave very specific instructions as to what he wanted his cake to look like.  While I originally tried to follow them, in the end I had to do what I could.  He was happy with the outcome, even though it did not resemble what was in his head ( I simply did not have enough decorations to produce what he was hoping). 


We had another birthday celebration that night.  We invited one of his nearby friends over as well as our dear friends who usually come to help us celebrate in the absence of our extended families who simply live too far away to come for birthdays ( we have a lot to celebrate!).  We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends living near us!


What a precious young man our dear Zai is becoming!  We are so proud of the person he is, of the faith he is displaying & of his kind & patient heart.  He is wonderful with the younger foster children we have through & has a heart for the elderly in our church & community.  It will be interesting in seeing how the Lord will use him in the years ahead!


Happy Birthday to our dear Zai!!

Blessings

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