Eagle

Where have I been? Four months of 2012 have evaporated already. Our biggest accomplishment has been making it through DJ's Eagle Scout Court of Honor. Yes.....the BIG one.

I have said it a thousand times and I know I am sick of hearing it but I am so proud of our boy.

The big joke is that it is always the Mother's Eagle award. She is the one that thinks up the idea pushes it all along and gets it done. I was adamant that I would not do that. From the beginning of his scouting experience I vowed a solemn vow.......that I would NOT care more about scouting than my boy did. I would NOT push. I would NOT make it about me, I would support HIM in whatever amount of participation he wanted. He even ended up not getting his Webelos badge....horrors!

And up until the Eagle Project and the very end, I was able to do that. And then suddenly....I cared!!! I had these rabid cravings for success. I wanted my boy to be spectacular and have THE GREATEST SCOUT PROJECT IN THE UNIVERSE! I only confessed it to my dear husband who wisely laughed at my delusions of grandeur and distracted me with chocolate. It was hilarious. I had to keep remembering my vow. It was hard.

And it was a huge challenge to keep my mouth shut.....but I did it. For his sake, I was silent. At the risk of colossal failure...I kept it zipped. And what an amazing experience. In the end, I really did get what I wanted. My boy experienced the process of choosing a project, managing the details, recruiting volunteers and accomplishing a great service to his community. And he did it all on his own. To me that was the greatest gift in the universe that I could have given him. The chance to fail. The chance to solve problems. The chance to serve willingly.

This Eagle award was well earned.

I managed to keep my yapper shut up until the last two months. There were all these little ticky tacky details with a few merit badges that needed to get wrapped up. The date was set for the event and planned for all six boys to get the award at once. Time was of the essence and my boy wasn't showing quite enough giddy-up-and-go for my taste. So, I eventually did nag.

But we got that sucker done. I did the honors of dropping off the paperwork at the scout office.

In the end the Court of Honor celebration was amazing. My mom and sister made a 24 hour trip down with two babies to support DJ. The staff brought the boys to the chapel so we could share the evening as a family. That was the most precious part.

Thanks to everyone who made that night a spectacular celebration for all six of those boys. It was EPIC.