In honor of my son turning 21 today, I’m re-running the post below (one of my favorites) from years past. He was an amazing little boy—full of love, joy, kindness, and questions. He’s grown into an open-minded adventurer, an intelligent, interesting, fun, caring and compassionate individual. Just a fine human being and I couldn’t be more proud of the man he’s turned out to be. He’s “dreaming with his eyes wide open.” I like that about him.
Happy Birthday, Son!
I love you,
Mom
A Moment In India I’ll Never Forget
When my son was very young, say four or five years old, I told him that one of the greatest gifts a person could ever receive was the chance to say I love you too. “Because if you get to say, I love you too it means that someone else said, I love you, first.” After that, he would often follow up his “I love you too’s” with “Hey, Mommy, I win!”
When I wrote this he was much older, a much taller than me, deep-voiced, hulking, athletic teen — with a girlfriend, friends, teammates, school, video games, interests, etc. You know, a life of his own and with a lot of childhood things left behind.
Then one day, a few years ago, my husband and I were traveling in India and something about standing alone, amongst the many, in the din of this Indian street corner caused me to miss the few — my children. Finally, I managed to get enough signal to send a text home so; I sent my son an “I love you” text. A few minutes later I got an “I love you too” response and then, a second later, a second text that said, “Hey, Mom, I win!”
I lost my breath, and my heart fluttered…he remembered. I let him think he won but in that brief moment, I had my five-year-old boy looking up at me and holding my hand (as we crossed a busy street) and telling me…he loved me too.
Hey, Son…I win.
10 Comments
I love this story! He’s a fine young man, raised by a couple of great parents! You all win. 🏆
I like that, Deb, thanks. ☺️
Why is someone always cutting onions when I read some of your stories? Happy Birthday to Jordan! Another milestone reached. 😃
Awww…silly onions. Thank you for the birthday wishes, John, I’ll pass them along.
Love that story. What a great young man.
Thank you, Lynnie, and I kinda agree with you. 😉😘
Hate allergies. Watery eyes, runny nose. Snif, sniff. Where’s the Kleenex. Great story.
Haha! Man, I hate it when allergies kick in like that as well. (Passing the Kleenex). 😉 And, Thank you. ☺️
Hey Kalebra, I win. Happy birthday young man. You have the mom of all moms. She holds dear every minute of your 21 years and occasionally when we are lucky she shares some of those minutes with her friends. We win too.
Hey Clinton, ☺️