I am a romantic. I always have been. Being a mother, I look down the imaginary road to my children’s futures, and I see my kids developing friendships, going through relationships, finding “the one” and falling in love, marrying and having kiddos. And I want that for them. I want them to live a life full of experiences. If I’m honest with myself, I even want them to go through heartbreak and pain knowing that it refines and strengthens them in the end. I find it (relatively) easy to see these things with Oldest and Quietest. I see all the normal experiences coming to them as easily as they do for the rest of the world. Maybe they don’t marry their first girlfriend or boyfriend. Maybe they do. Whatever happens, I want to be the supportive mother who is there cheering them on, comforting them, and conversing with them with an open-minded heart so that they know that Joel and I are their number one fans and that everything that we want for them shows them Christ in action.
With Littlest, I want the same things, but this time, my imaginary road is full of many more foggy places and sharp turns than I can even imagine– those things that I want more than anything for him to avoid. Difficulty finding love was one of them; then I happened upon this story. I cried. I WANT this for Littlest. While his physical difficulties will make many aspects of a relationship more difficult, they won’t render marriage to be impossible.
I really hope that when the time comes, Joel and I both are 1000% behind Littlest in anything he does whether it is living on his own or finding a life-partner with whom to share his life.
