Just Bragging

Gabe, sweet Gabe.  I really don't even know where to start when it comes to this child.  I met him when he was 3- a little ball of energy, with chubby baby hands.  He had a big poof ball of blonde curls on the top of his head, and told me that for that day, he was 5.  (Now he was really 3, but he had decided to be "5" for the day.)  That day, I bribed him with candy for his affections (lots of candy) and played spider man with him, and it's been love ever since.  Luckily, his Dad and I also fell in love, and now we all live happily ever after!

Well a couple big things are happening in Gabe's life right now:

#1.  Gabe got glasses.  We were driving one day when he started telling us about signs he couldn't see, then he started to have similar conversations with his teacher, and so his mom took him to the eye doctor.  This was the outcome:



Now I'm sorry about this next comment- and I realize I'm biased- but you just do not get more handsome than that as a 7 year old!  And let me just toot my own horn and say that in this picture, Gabe looks just like his Dad- minus the glasses.  Even his dimples are at the exact same place.  When I took this picture, the resemblance actually startled me.  I couldn't figure out if Chad turned 7, or if Gabe became a man.  Crazy.

#2.  At the beginning of April, all students in the state of Georgia, in 1st grade and above, took the CRCT test- a standardized test that the teacher prepares them for ALL year long.  Since Gabe is in first grade, this was his first year ever taking it and his teacher did an INCREDIBLE job preparing the class for it.  He was SO excited about it!  Day 1 of the test, he came by our house to get his soccer cleats and when I asked him how it was, he said "It was AWESOME".  Crazy kid!  Day 2 of the test had a similar response. And on Day 3 of the test, I picked him up from school and we went to the park to celebrate being done with the CRCT.  (Note:  He usually rides the bus home to our house, but because he was so excited about the test, he forgot to get on the bus!!  I stood on the driveway and watched the bus fly past me with no Gabe... only to then get a phone call that Gabe was at school waiting for me because he had missed the bus.) While driving, I asked him how it was and he said, "It was great, I aced it." Funny kid!  He obviously doesn't know about standardized testing quite yet-- I guess I prefer him to stay naive to the evils of the world- like such tests- anyway!

Well yesterday, he got the results and the kid ACED the math section.  I'm not even kidding.  And obviously he wasn't either!  He excelled in the other 2 sections as well.  Ha!  Amazing.

#3. This is my favorite thing-- on Sunday, Gabe is getting baptized at North Metro Church.  This has been a process for our family for several months now.  He asked Jesus into his heart several months ago, and then decided that he was ready to be baptized more recently.  Chad will be baptizing him, and all of his family (the MANY sides of it!) are coming to be a part of it.  I got to take him to record his video last week-- the video is the way our church has anyone getting baptized share their story, it plays on the big screen for all to see.  While recording, Gabe said "I asked Jesus into my heart so that he would take away my sins... (dramatic pause)... I had to, I just didn't want my sins anymore.

And that right there sums it all up.  This kid is smart and funny and adorable- but bottom line, Jesus LIVES in his heart and he is so stinkin proud of that, that he wants to tell the world about it!  And he'll start this process this Sunday