Silver Lining: one year with our ward of the state

Last year, on the 3-day MLK weekend, our ward of the state came to live with us.

That's about as far as I've gotten with this post. I've started a million drafts, and deleted them all. I was wanted to blog about how great he is and how none of us can believe it's been a year since he first got here.

But really, what I feel like saying is that it's been a tough year. I guess real parenting is when at least 60% of your tears and frustrations and prayers are about your children (or in this case, ward of the state). Having Jason come live with us has been hard. Going from being newlyweds with no kids to having a 12-year-old has been hard. Discovering how very rigid he is about what he thinks he is and is not capable of has been hard. A lot of other things have been hard, things that I will never share on this blog.

Jason is incredibly resilient, brilliant, talented, and independent. It's not hard to love him to death. It brings me to tears when he prays that our baby will grow strong and healthy during family prayers. I love that he hugs me at night, and he doesn't complain about coming home to an empty house every day while Sam and I commute home. Without a doubt, these last twelve months have been the most rewarding, laughter-filled, joyful twelve months of my life, just as they've been the most stressful, heartbreaking and tough twelve months.

Jason is so amazing. Of course he's not perfect, and in many ways he's not at the point I thought he'd be at when he had been with us for a year. But it's not my job to change him. It's my job to love the heck out of him. Just love him every day as much as I can, and then love him some more.

And really, when he plays his clarinet, or flashes his smile at us (bless his genetic make-up that doesn't require braces), or helps me with dinner, or does one of his impersonations, it's impossible not to love that kid.