You

Looking at your picture makes me remember so many things. As I pick out a photo, studying it for a minute, I ache with longing to hear your voice, to touch your arm. You are smiling into the camera, standing by your dad. I think the title for the page will be "like father like son" because you are so much like your dad. I want to reach inside the photo for one last hug before saying goodbye and my heart aches. I miss you. I miss your funny little ways of expressing yourself. Your strong opinions that usually clash with mine. I miss your little scar on your face that, whenever I see it, I think, I wonder where that came from? In fact, it isn't a scar but an indentation on your cheek and it has always been there, but it always makes me pause for a second. It feels like forever til summer gets here and you come home. Yesterday I realized that you will have been gone from Waldport for a year, gone from your sister. It has flown by, so shouldn't a few more months do the same thing? the voice in my head says yes but my heart tells me that it is too long to wait! Have you ever wished you could bring a photo to life? I wish it every time I sit down to scrapbook. I think one of the reasons I love to do it so much is, not only for the creativity of it, the challenge of making something beautiful, but for the closeness I feel when I look at pictures of those that I love. I begin to realize, as worship music plays quietly in the background, in my little corner of the kitchen, that I am not alone, that I carry all of you with me, and it comforts me. So the ache of wishing I could be where you are, or you where I am, eases off.

I paste the photo of you to the page, thinking what a handsome man you are, thinking of the lucky woman who will share her life with you someday and the beautiful little children that we will add to our family. It makes me happy to know that you love, you laugh, you live with the knowledge that you are loved, you are ours and we are proud of you.