It is official - I am a mother of a teenager!

"Build me a son, O Lord,

who will be strong enough to know when he is weak,

 and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid,

one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat,

and humble and gentle in victory."

I love this quote by Douglas MacArthur. As a mother, I feel such a weighted responsibility to shape my sons into Godly men. Some nights, in sheer exhaustion, I fall asleep knowing I am accomplishing that, and other nights I weep from the feeling of parental failure! However, when I read this quote that begins by asking the LORD to build me a son…it puts it all in perspective that He is the builder and I am a humble tool.

Another favorite quote…

"Between the innocence of babyhood and the dignity of manhood,

we find a delightful creature of a boy."

We aren’t quite hitting the manhood stage in the Presson home yet; however, Avery becomes an official teenager on Monday. It is his golden birthday…13 years old on December 13th. WOW. This saddens me. I know it shouldn’t, but it does. So, take a walk down memory lane with me in the next couple of days as I share my top THIRTEEN memories of my oldest son…He has been the first to teach my every aspect of motherhood. It has been an incredible journey…

MEMORY ONE – I woke Clark up in the wee hours of the morning, six weeks before my due date. I asked him to stay awake with me for a while, because something just didn’t feel right. Of course, he insisted on calling the doctor. The doctor decided I needed to come to the hospital for a check-up. Clark was FURIOUS, LIVID, STOMPING, and RED-FACED, because I was determined to curl my hair before going to the hospital at 2a.m! We had our baby girl clothes packed for Emily Hope and our baby boy clothes packed for Avery Matthew…since we didn’t know which one we would be bringing home. Once we got to Jackson Madison County General Hospital, it was decided that a baby was determined to join us! I have so many memories of that first delivery…some pleasant and others not pleasant.  Thus, I will spare you the details of most. A few of my favorites are… Nana and Papa (my in-laws) had their phone accidentally turned off so we had to contact a neighbor to tell them they had another grandchild on the way. My parents had to drive from Illinois, and I was so excited that they arrived before Avery was born.  Clark decided, when I was dilated to 8, that he wanted a different name other than Avery Matthew if it was a boy. I told him it was too late for name changes!!

At 5:07 p.m. on Saturday, December 13, 1997 our lives were changed forever with the arrival of a tiny 6lb, red faced, blonde headed baby boy. It certainly does not seem like thirteen years ago. Within the hour, my room was full of family and church family that fell in love with my little man the second that they saw him, however, no one was more in love than me.

"There has never been, nor will there ever be,

anything quite as special as the love between a mother and a son."