This weekend marks a big day for my family. My oldest son and I are going on a road trip, with a purpose! Several years ago while listening to Focus On The Family they were talking about a tape series. “Preparing for Adolescents”, which covers EVERYTHING that a preteen will face over the next 10 or so years, from peer pressure, to puberty, to sex. Very detailed in nature, but it is meant to open a very frank conversation that will hopefully last you through the teen years as your child becomes an adult, or in this case my boy becomes a man! The plan is that you go on a memorable trip and listen to the series on the way. The child will be given a notebook and a pen to take any notes they want to take, and have the full ability to stop the tape at anytime if a subject needs to be expanded on.
So our road trip will put us in the car for 13 hours from home to Florida, where on Friday night we will crash in a hotel. Waking up to go see my mom get married. Then after that we will head to Savanna, Georgia and crash in a hotel again for the night. Sunday morning we will wake up and go to Ft. Sumter. This is where the memory hopefully becomes something worth remembering.
As readers of my blog know, I recently read the book, Raising a Modern Day Knight. This is my first attempt at implementing that book. It will be a time where I have a frank talk with my boy about what I expect from him over the next 10 years during his journey to manhood. What it means to be a man, and how I expect him to fully embrace that calling. I will go over each element of the crest included in this image. It is something I recently had designed by a friend, and every element in it represents something in my family. It is so touching that this conversation will happen on Easter Sunday at the start of what was a radical change for our country. Two new beginnings represented in one setting. Encouraging a third new beginning. The day my boy starts his journey to being a man of honor and integrity.
I pray and hope that 20 years from now as my boy is a man, he can look back on this weekend as the point his life changed.
Also as an adoption note, things have drastically changed over the last three days. Please keep my family in your prayers as the decisions we will make over the next two weeks may change our life’s forever.