24 Hours....

In just under 24 hours hubby, That Other Kid and I will turn over That Kid (My Marine) over to the United States Marine Corp. At 3:30 p.m. CT tomorrow afternoon My Marine will check in with the recruiter and he will officially be a USMC recruit. We are allowed to hang out with him till 10 p.m. tomorrow when he has to be in lockdown in his hotel room. Then EARLY Monday morning he will start the longest 13 weeks of his life (and mine) although in all honesty his 13 weeks will be a lot harder and longer than mine! I will still have the normal day to day things to take care of. Life will go on. I will still be homeschooling That Other Kid, taking care of the household stuff, exercising and training for the Komen 3 Day and having the freedoms granted to me by men and women who have gone before him to ensure that I am allowed to live a life in a free country. During this 13 weeks (which is over right around Christmas time - YAY) his life will change dramatically. He will go from a regular middle class young man struggling to find his way in this big world to a United States Marine trained to fight off the "bad guys" (in the words of That Other Kid). I'm gonna miss him fiercely but I know that life will go on all around me. He will come back from boot camp a changed person. He will go in a "boy/man" and come out a "man". I believe it will be the best decision of his life and after this 13 weeks he will be the member of a very elite club - "The Few, The Proud, The Marines". Although for the past 9 months I have been on a bit of an emotional roller coaster ride wondering about this decision for my son and wondering if we will both survive I have to say that I couldn't be more proud of the decision for him to become a Marine! Semper Fi (Always Faithful) seems to being a fitting way to end this post....and it fits him perfectly. He has always been faithful to the people in his life....even when they don't deserve it.