Dear Charleston,
Happy birthday (a day early) to my eleven-year-old! I can scarcely believe it has been ELEVEN years since the happiest day of my life—the day you made me a mama. Of course your siblings’ births were incredible, too, but the day you came into this world marked the first time that I had tasted the sweetness of cradling a baby of my very own, and no other memory can quite touch the euphoria of that sacred moment when you and I first met.
We’ve made so many more memories in these last eleven years, you and I, and so much has changed since your earliest years as an only child. You were an amazing “one and only,” and you’re an even better big brother (you live up to Oma’s nickname for you, “Best Big Brother”). [SIDE NOTE: I mentioned something today about what it was like to be an only child and you said it was pretty fun at the time but that you would never want to be an only child now. . . . which is good, seeing as you don’t have a choice in the matter.]
This past year with you has been momentous for numerous reasons—many circumstantial (our first full year as a family of six, new homeschool programs, a new home church) and many resulting from your being a (gulp!) preteen and full-on BIG KID. This was the year you became a strong independent swimmer, read through the full Bible for the first time, paid your own way to church camp, joined the church production team, finished the Harry Potter series, performed in your first talent show, wrote and filmed your first movie. . . and SO MUCH MORE!
Observing you this past year has felt like watching a video on double speed; you seem to have grown and matured more as a 10-year-old than the several previous years combined, and some days I’m just barely able to keep up with the version of you that presents each day. You have become quieter this year, more conscientious and thoughtful, more perfectionistic, more observant of the world and also more self aware. I’ve witnessed the heartbreaking intrusion of new doubts and insecurities in some areas, and celebrated your increased responsibility, maturity, and confidence in other aspects of life. I’ve watched you question some ideas, letting go of some beliefs while latching onto others. And I’ve been amazed and inspired by your faith, your integrity, your mechanical prowess, your critical thinking skills, your practicality, and your remarkable attention to detail.
I’ve also been happy to see that some things about you haven’t changed a bit: your creativity and ingenuity, your curiosity and intelligence, your heartfelt commitment to the people and things you care about, your quirky humor and frequent snark, your sharp negotiation skills (“King of the Loophole!”), your love for Legos and Odyssey and crafting and reading and Mario, and your strong opinions about everything from football (you hate it) to Hermione Granger (whom you will defend to the grave) to the acceptable time for listening to Christmas music (after Thanksgiving dinner through your birthday). You are absolutely one of my favorite people to hang out with—not just as your mom, but as a friend too—and I love that we can have deep conversations one minute and joke around with each other the next. And while I probably rely on you a little too much (welcome to being the oldest of four), I am intensely grateful for your helping hands and servant’s heart. Nothing melts me quite like watching you look out for your siblings; I hope that one day they can recognize how blessed they are to have you as their big brother.
Per our annual tradition, we commemorated your birthday week with an interview. I’m honored that you still indulge this ritual of mine and appreciated your thoughtful and honest responses to my questions. Some of your answers genuinely surprised me and sparked deeper after-interview conversations. Other responses were totally on-brand. As always, you brought your trademark humor and creativity to the table. I love that we have this interview documented for posterity’s sake, and I am grateful to you for your letting me share it with all of our readers. I know they’ll enjoy this as much as I did.
What was the most memorable part of last year?
I’m not sure. It might be Kalahari. It might be going to The Oaks. It might be my journey with God.
What is something you are looking forward to as an 11-year-old?
Like a privilege I’ll get? Then I don’t know, because you haven’t told me what privileges I’ll get when I’m eleven. I’m excited for Kalahari again, I’ve been looking forward to that. Eleven is just gonna be an age, though, there’s not that much I’m looking forward to about it.
What five words would you use to describe yourself?
Christian, soon-to-be-eleven, gamer, dodgeball-er, and loophole-er. Hmm, can I see if I can loophole a sixth word in there? . . . Okay, I’ve got one more then, right? Lego-er.
What are your favorite ways to spend your time?
Listening to Odyssey and playaways, having fun . . . including playing dodgeball, playing video games, playing Legos, playing etc.
What is your least favorite thing to do?
Something I have done or don’t want to do? I’ll go with something I have done. My least favorite thing that I’ve ever done was sin. (Laughing.) Your readers are going to be so bored with that answer. You might get a bit mad at me for the real answer, but it’s math.
What are your favorite foods?
I like cheeseburgers, BBQ chips (I think my favorite brand is Doritos but it’s been so long it might have changed), root beer, dark chocolate, ice cream cake, and that’s about it.
What is your favorite color?
First place . . . I like green, maybe red, I like both green and red. And then blue is in second.
What is your favorite book and why?
I like the Bible. I mean, I don’t exactly read it for fun, but it’s educational and it’s good, and where would we be without it? Also the sixth Harry Potter is really good because it’s probably the most entertaining one in the series and I like the relationship between Dumbledore and Harry.
If you could ask God any question, what would it be?
Is He gonna answer it truthfully? I mean, He IS truthful so I know it will be truthful, but will He answer it? Then if yes, I’d ask when He’s coming back.
What is the best thing about our family?
Our religion. That’s one of those churchy answers, but it’s also my honest answer.
Describe the perfect day.
The perfect day would be a day when I don’t have any school to do. I wake up at 7:30, I listen to Odyssey and then I hear that there’s an Odyssey contest and to do it you have to draw a picture and they judge the best picture, the winner gets a billion dollars. I draw a picture, I mail it, it takes two seconds to get to them, and in another thirty seconds the competition is over. They judge everything in another five seconds and I win. I get $5 billion in Bitcoin. And so we get a new house. The house has a big pool with three water slides, one about the size of one of the ones at Kalahari, one the size of the one at the Y, and one baby one. The room with the pool opens up to the outside. The house also has a big room that’s a reading room with cushions and couches and beanbags and tons of books that are organized by category and by height. And then there’s a lot of other rooms like a Lego room, a marble run room, a train room, and then my room is about the size of the inside of Dairy Queen and I have a couple couches, a beanbag, and then I still have a loft bed and then there’s a little tunnel inside the wall that goes into an office in the other room next door with office stuff and speakers to listen to Odyssey. . . .
. . . And I know this is really long because the perfect day has a lot of stuff. And I just got to the part of looking at my new room and it’s lunch time. We go to In-n-Out and it’s not very busy there and I get an extra large root beer, an extra large vanilla ice cream, and we all get a lot of good food and then we go to our new home that’s still in Liberty Hill, right next to Santa Rita Ranch which shows how rich we are. So I play and read and go for a little dive in the pool and we discover that we got a really cool 8-person-car and it’s like a military car, and so we go to Legoland but we do that on our private jet. And then we spend the night at Legoland. Oh, and dinner is the same thing as lunch. (The bigger your imagination, the bigger your wishes are.) Oh, and then we receive information that everyone in past, present, and future has become a Christian.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Oh man, that’s a tough one. I wish I’d known that one for the last six or seven years. I’ve decided that before I’m president I want to be a rich guy, so basically I want to have my perfect day that I just described. After I become rich as an entrepreneur I wanna climb up the political ladder until I’m president for two terms (for eight years). And then I was thinking about opening a little pizza shop, President’s Pizza.
What scares you?
There’s a lot of answers, which is a bad thing. Grasshoppers. Wasps. Satan.
What makes you happy?
Kalahari, video games, playing dodgeball. I’m not sure if this counts, it doesn’t really make me happy: Jesus. But He doesn’t make me happy, He makes me joyful.
What makes you sad?
Math. It makes me depressed. Also, sin.
What is something that bothers you?
Inappropriate stuff. The twins, when they’re annoying and goofy. That frustrates me. I mean, weren’t you frustrated with them when they were being crazy this morning?!
What is something about you that would surprise other people to learn?
That I’m pretty quiet, because I’m loud and funny around other kids.
What’s the best part of being the oldest sibling?
That I get an extra inheritance.
What advice would you give to your siblings?
Trust God.
If you could change something about your life, what would it be?
Okay, I’ll stop with the church answers (which are the true answers). I’d like to be wiser. And have more money.
What is something you want to learn this year?
I wanna learn how to be perfect. Wouldn’t that be the best thing to learn? I wanna know how to not sin. I’m not sure about anything else since I’m so good at everything else already (said with a smirk).
What is your biggest birthday wish?
Is it okay if this is totally moral but basically impossible? That everyone in the world was a Christian: past, present, and future. Or I suppose a Jew, if it was before Jesus’ time.
What message would you like to share with others?
I hope you realize by now that I’m funny. If not, I’m doing a really bad job with this interview, and I’m gonna have a pretty bad day when Mom tells me.
Thank you, Charleston, for your sweet words and for reminding me what a lucky mom I am that I get to claim you as my child. I tell you all the time how much I love you, and I mean it: even after all these years, I’m still head-over-heels for you, Kiddo. I’ve loved watching you grow to this point, and I feel so fortunate that I get to be along for the ride in the years ahead.
Happy birthday, Bud. I can guarantee that not all of your birthday wishes will come true (you set a pretty high bar) but I do hope that it’s a great one and that the year ahead is overflowing with love, growth, and blessings beyond measure.
Love Always and Forever,
Mom(my) <—- BLESS YOU for still addressing me as Mommy from time to time (even though you aged out of the “mommy” stage years ago) because you know how much I love it!
