The Firstborn - Keeper of the Family Birthright

I know I said that was probably the last post, but I woke up a little early and I had been meaning to post this.

Many people reading our blog know our son Alex, but some of you have met us online through this process and know so little about him, and our posts have been pretty one-sided between our children for obvious reasons. We have been blessed with two wonderful children, so I thought it was time to tell more about Alex.

Alex is 16 years old, which we both swallow hard before saying that because knowing his childhood years are almost behind him, is still something for which we are not ready. As a baby he was a lot like we have seen in Audrey so far – very laid back, very affectionate, and very playful. As he got older we realized this was a very imaginative child as well. This may have come from being an only child. He used to play all sorts of games he’d make up. Ask his uncle Matt about “rescue chair” sometime.

Alex is very smart. He’s great at all of the math they’ve thrown at him and this year we discovered we have a budding artist. So far all of the material he’s faced in school has been no problem. He’s taking honors classes and turns in fantastic test scores. He doesn’t do much homework, which lowers the grades a letter or so, so we do fight that battle.

He gets the intelligence from his Mom and his academic laziness from his Dad. I take full credit for these genes. I was very lazy academically speaking.

Alex also has a good sense of humor. He makes us laugh a lot with the things he comes up with and from what we can see he has the same affect on his friends. Like his Mom, he can be quiet on the outside, but get to know either of them well enough and they talk all the time. So he gets the reputation sometimes as being shy.

Alex main athletic endeavor is skateboarding. He has been doing this for a few years now and is really good. He’s always telling me new tricks he can do. He keeps threatening to run track. I hope he does. Skateboarding has produced more injuries than we’d like, but no more really than other sports might have. Just pray for his safety, because like I said he’s constantly trying new tricks.

We are really proud of our baby boy/man. Alex decided to follow Jesus at 7, so he’s been a believer for a while, but as we see him turn into a man, we also see his faith grow. I can’t say enough of how much we love our son and how incredibly proud we are of who he is. This is not to say we don’t struggle over things with him. He is a teenager after all and trying to claim his independence a little earlier than Mom and Dad think he’s ready for. But if we step back and see past the issue of the day, we see a terrific young man with whom God has blessed us, and we are privileged to be his parents.