Texas Trip

Ok, yes, this post is about our trip to Texas. And yes, this post is about Steven graduating from the Air Force BMT. So if you're tired of hearing about it, I promise that today or tonight I will also post the one I have been saying I was going to do about all the stuff Josh does too. So you can read this or not!!! :) But I will try to make this one entertaining as well.... that's one of the reasons I've had to wait so long to write it. If I had tried to write it as soon as we got back it would not have been entertaining, it would have been sad.... but since we are removed from the trip and Steven has started Tech school and is doing well, I am doing better. So I can approach this differently.
I am still not understanding how to do blogs with more than 5 pictures... So this might have to be more than one post which, I know... will get all confusing like the Cardy Awards post. Try to follow along. Y'all should be used to me by now. :)
We drove to San Antonio for the graduation. Yes, most of you laughed, told me where the liquor stores were along the way... asked who was taking dramamine (me or kids)....But it really went great. We got there in 13 hours I think? We wanted to leave about 2 or 3 in the morning (yeah right... didn't happen.) But it still went fine. We fixed sandwiches so minimal stopping... We were very impressed with ourselves. I can't remember for sure, but don't think we did much the first nite. Our hotel was in the ghetto, but was brand new. I will probably just do a separate post about the hotel, because it deserves its own... y'all just don't know. So let's go to day two.
This was the day we were going to get to see our baby!!!!!!! And for all of you people that are just now jumping on board and trying to figure out how in the world I have a son that will be 20 in July... just go read the old posts (John Matthews, among others. No, I didn't have a baby when I was in 9th grade and we hid him away and now I've reconnected.)
Anyway, we go to the coin ceremony (don't ask me) and they march all these boys on the little field thingy.... The third picture above is what we KNEW was Steve's squadron. But all of these boys looked alike!!! We took ten pictures of this group of boys but never saw Steve!!!! I told William..."ok, well... we know he lost weight bc those are a bunch of skinny face boys out there!!!" We seriously couldn't tell which was him. Miss Know it All Emily swears she knew... she didn't. Whatever.
Finally, they finished and said the boys could be released when their parents got to them.... I took off!!! I wasn't even sure where he was, but I knew in general what block he was in. I finally saw my son standing there.... I've never seen him look so handsome or broken or... I don't know. I still can't tell you what I saw in those eyes at that moment. Just tears and I saw he was different. Not different bad... just different. I launched into him and just sobbed... I didn't really mean to. I was just so happy!!!! I had been so ready to see my boy. Anyway the rest of the family I left behind caught up with us..... the top two pictures were taken that day.
OK, so top things we noticed about Steven:
1.) He dropped over 20 lbs. in boot camp. He gained muscle.... which he was proud of. (but not as much as he thinks he did!) He does look great though.
2.) the tan line. They have to wear hats every single time they are outside. so he has this sexy tan line which the kids found hilarious:
3.) he was no longer ADD. The boy could sit!!! It was very nice. Matter of a fact, he was very content just to sit with us. He was just about as happy just riding in the truck with us listening to the radio as he was doing anything.
4.) he was aware of EVERYTHING around him. Jay threw a fork or something...I don't know because it was in a busy food court and we missed it and Steven jumped up and ran and picked it up. Someone knocked something over in a store and Steven fixed it. There was a man sitting way back off of where we were walking with a sergeant stripe or something on and Steve stopped and saluted. I was just amazed at how much he NOTICED.
5.) My son has made the decision to grow up at 19. He had to realize that weekend that his life, for the most part, in Starkville, is over. He had to realize that this is his career path. This is life now, not college and a stepping stone. This is it. The real thing. And while I know that Steve doesn't regret a thing, that weekend was hard for all of us. That's a big realization he had to come to that weekend. He's still a baby... or was. My son grew up.... almost all that weekend and those weeks in BMT. I love him so much... No, I didn't birth him. Instead, I earned the right to be his mother. And I love him in some ways even more fiercely because of that. And to watch him go through the things I watched him go through emotionally that weekend almost did me in. I shed way more tears than he did.... but I tried to do them after he would go back to the dorm. When he would talk to us about them, I felt so privileged to share that with him. It was so hard for me to let him go back to the hard, unfeeling, no-mama land of the Air Force every night. Everything I suffered through too.... feeling like we were abandoning him. Wondering if he thought we thought we were just "done" in our raising of him. Realizing I would have Easter without one of my "chicks" in the nest.
Ok I'm getting too sappy. I'm sorry. Ick. Said I would try not to do that!!! Ok I'm going to just do another post of sightseeing with Steven and the kids. Get off of this emotional crap! :)