Alex

Yesterday morning Big Sister Quincie's boyfriend left for Boot Camp! He's going to be a Marine. Alex holds a very special place in our family and especially in my life. You see I had a dear friend who lost her life to cancer 5 years ago. Before she died we were having one of our special mornings together, sometimes those special days were in the hospital, other times they were in her home. I have the most wonderful memories of those days, I tried to be there with her at least 2 or 3 times a week. Anyway, one of those days, she was telling me how blessed I was to have such amazing girls and that she wanted so much for her son to marry a girl like my Quincie and have a family like ours. She felt such peace about death but she felt such pain knowing that her boys would not have a mom at their wedding, about not getting to be a grandmother to their children, about not being able to share her own memories of her boys as babies with their wives and her grand kids.
   Well..... guess who her son is??? Yes~~ Our precious Quincie and her precious Alex have been dating for 3 years now and we just love this guy to death!

He is so incredibly sweet to our girl, so kind and loving to our family and such a delight to be around. He was quite the lost kid when his mom died. He had a great deal of buried pain and giant walls he had been building up through his moms very long battle with cancer. He was angry and he wasn't about to let anyone try to help him. I have to be honest, he was not the guy I wanted dating my daughter. Not that he was a bad kid, just not a happy guy.

Quincie changed all that. She showed him GRACE. She showed him forgiveness, she showed him HOPE. He began to shine, he didn't even look like the same guy. She helped him slowly but surely chisel down those walls he had been building all those years.

And once those walls had some cracks in them, he began to see light again. Hope in the distance. He let God back in. He grew. He was baptised (his Mom's biggest dream). He grew some more. He began to serve in the church...in children's ministries... he was sooooo good with the kids! And he grew some more. And he has continued to grow up into this wonderful young man right before our eyes.

Quincie is going to really miss having this guy around for the next 13 weeks. And another 4-9 months after his 10 day break! I have a feeling we are going to be seeing a lot more of our oldest Princess!

Alex we are so proud of you and can not wait to see all that God has in store for you in the coming years.
It is an honor to call you ~Our~ precious Alex now!
Note~
Right before I hit POST on this entry, Quincie sent me this this text. I wanted to add it here so I would  always remember how far this relationship between the 2 of them has come. I know Alex will want to see it too. I am as proud of my daughter as I am of Alex. You see when 2 kids are too young to be in a serious relationship their focus is so much about ME and not about what is Gods plan, or even the others dream. These 2 are now ready to let go and let God. Makes a moms heart feel super happy. (Can you tell I have a toddler too?) Here it is:
Mommy, I read Alex's contract today and it says he's enlisted for 8 years. Not 4 which is usual or 5 which is special for some jobs like presidential detail (his dream). After his active duty term, he goes in to the reserves. I've heard him talk about it before, but I didn't know it was set in stone like that. He's so brave. Quincie