When I think about the last 18 years of the boy's life, I can only imagine what the next 18 years (God willing) will bring. I watched him in his cap and gown on Friday night, tears filling my eyes as I realized that the baby whose diaper I changed and whose love for God I loved and whose innocence drew me closer to God myself is now no longer a high-schooler. He is now a young man heading off to college and beyond. He is joining his two older sisters in the world of adult decisions, and I am nervous. Nervous but not scared.
I know what his mother, his father, his grandparents, his Auntie Boo, and I have put in him. I know, most of all an inkling of what God has put inside him to impact this world. And I love what I see shining out of his eyes as he looks at the world around him, knowing that he has a place there.
I love that while he may be questioning a long-term career, he is not questioning his self-worth.
I love that God graced me to love a child I did not physically birth but loved like he was my own.
I love that because of God's Presence in his life he can question the world but he doesn't have to question his own reality...because he is who God made him to be. His future is bright. And even when he does things that make us all wonder if he heard us guide with wisdom but didn't listen, I know that he will be all right. The decisions ahead are his to make, but we will always be here loving him no matter what.
His mom and I talked about my place in his life all these years, as his father's sister, as his doting aunt, but also as a member of his parenting village. I acknowledged as she looked into my eyes with mirror tears that I wasn't just here, hanging out with nothing better to do. The love I had for this boy-turned-man was the real lesson for me.
This boy is not the only one who graduated this past Friday.
I did too.
I accepted the honor of being his Auntie Mom. I graduated from one who did not realize how important I was to his development to one who cried a parent's tears at his graduation...tears of pride because I know where he came from and I know where he is going.
He has grown up.
And so have I.
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