Steven is 16 today.
While cooking his birthday supper (his choice of menu: ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, baked beans, crescent rolls, fudgy ice cream dessert) I suddenly remembered. "Oh! I forgot to post about you today!"
Steven: Post about me?
Me: Yes. I always post about my kids on their birthdays.
Steven: You mean, write about them??
Me: Yes.
Steven: Why?
Me: Because my kids are wonderful and I love them.
Steven: But why post on their birthdays?
Me: To show I love them, I guess. I just like to.
Steven: So all the moms out there that don't post about their kids on their birthdays, they don't love them?
Me: ERGH. Steven, I plan to post about you whether you like it or not, because I love you and it's your birthday and that's that.
Last week we went shopping for jeans for Steven and afterwards I wrote up the whole ordeal to post here, but then realized that would be unwise, so I'm saving it so I can read it at his graduation or wedding or something ten years from now. But I'll share this much:
Setting: fitting room at the back of Sears.
Me: Ok, try these on one by one and show them to me.
Steven: Oh great.
Me: Go on.
Alarm: DWEE dee.
Steven: GAAAAAH! What did I do??
Me:Don't worry about it.
Door closes.
Alarm: DWEE dee.
Door opens.
Steven: Are you sure this is ok?
Me: Yes.
Door closes.
Alarm: DWEE dee.
Door opens.
Steven: Am I gonna get in trouble?
Me: No! If anyone comes, I'll explain.
Door closes. One minute passes.
Alarm: DWEE dee.
Door opens.
Steven [panicked]: IS THERE A CAMERA IN HERE??!!
Me: NO. TRY ON THOSE CLOTHES!
He and I went grocery shopping this morning. He went along for three reasons--a) to get in some driving time, b) to heft the 50-pound sacks at Cash-n-Carry for me and c) because he had some work time to get in today since he didn't do his morning chores a few times this week, and I thought helping me in town would be much more efficient than sacking seed at the warehouse.
Steven's blessing to our family is that he keeps things interesting. We backed out the driveway slowly, and suddenly the car revved up and flew backwards in a quarter-circle, onto the road, and thankfully no one was coming and we didn't go in the ditch. I yelped, and Steven looked at me with big eyes. "I hit the accelerator instead of the brake."
"Breathe, Mrs. Smucker, in, out."
Then at Grocery Outlet I sent him out to the car with the first load of groceries while I finished paying and entered the drawing, and when I came outside there was Steven talking with a woman who turned out to also be a Luo from Kenya. We had a fun conversation and I told her we would love to come to the barbecue they host every year for the Kenyan students at the U of O.
Our friend Vincent told us once that Kenyans can take one look at each other and know which tribe they're from. They must also evidently have the skill to recognize a fellow Kenyan across a parking lot in Oregon, which is rather amazing. For all that lady knew, Steven could have been from Ghana or South Africa or some other place a few thousand miles from Luo land.
This sort of thing doesn't happen when I shop with the other kids, so like I said, Steven keeps life interesting.
And he is tall and handsome and funny and kind, and we love him and are proud of him. And he came in from the car carrying a 50-lb. sack of sugar on his shoulder and a 50-lb. sack of potatoes
in his hand without puffing or straining at all.
Here's Steven on his 12th birthday.
What a handsome young man!
ReplyDeleteAnd, I like the little plate with the rooster on it because I also have chickens and roosters all over my kitchen. :)
Your family is blessed on so many levels. Happy Birthday to all of you because having Steven in your family is a gift all the way around.
ReplyDeleteIt is something that people who don't adopt may not understand -- how very much we love these kids that were born in our hearts, not out of our bodies. Last year we took a picture of the "generations that love built" and it was a four generation picture from my husband's side. His stepmother, him, our daughter, Christina and her daughter, Charis -- the four of them and not a single drop of common blood. (Christina and Charis are both adopted.) It makes me happy somewhere in the marrow of my bones! It's a living breathing example of being adopted into the family of God. When I think that this little bitty bit of love that I feel for these that God has made a part of my family is NOTHING in comparison to how God feels about me -- well, that really makes my heart sing!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this column on Steven. It might not be to his liking exactly, but even in that, you give us a glimpse into his life and that is good, good, GOOD!!! (Someday, he might even think its wonderful, but don't hold your breath!)