25.

Today my kid turns 25 and I’m going to try not to embarrass him all over the internet today but I can’t help but make sure every knows it’s his birthday and that he should be celebrated. I wish I had been less self-involved the first 5 years of his life and then I wish I had more time to give him the middle years when I was also trying to parent two younger and needier siblings. But basically all that means is that he deserves the majority of the credit for the awesome adult he has become.

If you’re in Huntsville and you go to Lowe Mill this week and you see him walking around (if you’re not in Huntsville, this is the place he works doing their marketing and it requires he bop around a lot taking pictures of things so most people see him out in the wild if they go there often enough) tell him Happy Birthday. He has grown up with a Mom who constantly plasters his face on her social media so he’s used to people saying, “I know your Mom.”

I’m proud of who he is as an adult and I’m so grateful that – for now – he’s living in the same town as I am. Having an adult child around to go see movies with, or go hiking with, or grab coffee with…is kinda the best thing ever.

Happy Birthday, Eliah.