As if there hasn’t been enough going on this week, Hayden had to go and turn fourteen today. It’s almost too much to handle. I can’t tell you how much joy this child brings me.
I posted this picture and a bit of the same text on Facebook this morning, but it all bears repeating. Because I love. this. kid.
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Dear Hayden,
In my mind, you are still this little, but today you are somehow turning 14!
Sometimes I watch you enter the room and it’s like there is a stranger in the house. I cannot reconcile your tall body, your long, limbs, your low voice, or your big feet as belonging to anyone I know.
It’s a hard thing as a mother to have a heart that desires bondage and a mind that understands the need for slack in the rope. Sometimes the conflict is so great, I end up hanging myself! Sorry for those times, it’s just that I love you that much.
The day you were born I gazed at your face in pure, blissful awe and dreamed a thousand dreams for you. So far, you have made almost all of them come true - as well as creating others that I could have never imagined.
As much I know that you are indeed becoming a man, my mom-colored glasses still allow me to look past all of that and see only what I will never let go of - the image of a green-eyed, long-lashed, round cheeked, beautiful little boy.
As Kellan and Riss would say…
I love you a google times a million times infinity times google plus one!
Happy 14th birthday!
Love,
Mom
Hayden turns ELEVEN.
Hayden turns TWELVE.
Hayden turns THIRTEEN.
