Just another quiet evening at our house...

I have big kids, teenagers, in fact. Heck, they're almost grown...just ask them! Two of them are counting the few remaining months until they can start driving. Last evening they were showing me how mature they are. Would you trust them with your minivan?

Max couldn't care less about driving yet...at 13, he has two passions: video games and food..but he hates when someone thinks he's "immature". It's the worst kind of insult.

They try to act all cool, my kids...but this is what they're really like at home.

You know what? I love these guys.  I don't want them to grow up too fast. I'm so glad to see them being kids...because life wasn't always like this for them.

I think of all the struggles we've had, the bumps and bruises, the adjustment issues after each of our adoptions. I remember the rages of this kid, the tantrums and fears of that one, the kid who would sit crying outside the door when I was in the bathroom, afraid I might disappear. I think of the times I was hit, scratched, sworn at, and bitten by this one and the day another one ran away with no shoes or coat in the dead of winter. I remember holding a bedroom window closed when one of them was trying to jump out. I remember holding one of them tight in my arms so he wouldn't hurt himself while he raged, then holding him even tighter when he started sobbing. Thankfully, those times are mostly memories and rarely a part of our reality now. We've been lucky, we've worked hard at it, and the kids are healing bit by bit.

We're a family, a big, silly, loud, crazy family...far from perfect...but what a gift.