I hope you like this week\u2019s FMF \u201cThe Boy In Between\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 Hi T.J.,<\/p>\n You\u2019ve been at camp for two days and I\u2019m wondering how are you doing in this in between.\u00a0 Between my farewell on your cabin\u2019s porch when I kissed your sweaty forehead and rumpled your damp curls to this very morning\u2014 two days after I left you and one day before I can bring you home\u2014 I wonder \u2018how are you doing, Baby?\u2019.\u00a0 And I\u2019m trusting that you\u2019re remembering to be a good listener, and a kind friend, and an adventurous boy.\u00a0 Because this is your chance to be just you.\u00a0 Not the boy in between a sardonic big brother and a sassy little sister, not our little music man, not even my Tear-Bear\u2014just you. And I hope in this in between\u2014these days of being \u201cjust you\u201d\u2014 you\u2019re not lonely or afraid or sad. I hope God is showing you how wonderful, and beautiful, and simply perfect you are.\u00a0 And I hope you\u2019re forming that \u201csuper-awesome\u201d story I asked for in your card.<\/p>\n But in the meantime, I have a super awesome story for you.<\/p>\n There once lived a little boy who was kind and gentle, sweet and smart, fiercely loyal and full of strength.\u00a0 But very few people saw this boy as kind and gentle, sweet and smart, loyal and strong.\u00a0 Oh, most people caught glimpses of him standing in his outgoing brother\u2019s shadow, or looked pass him to gaze at his beautiful sister, but they didn\u2019t see him<\/i>. Who they saw was the \u201cmiddle him\u201d\u2014 the \u201cin between\u201d him.<\/p>\n Until he couldn\u2019t sit still for long or look at them in their eyes\u2014 then they noticed the boy in the middle.\u00a0 Then his voice was singled out as louder, harsher, higher, and all together, inappropriate<\/em>.\u00a0And when he rebelled with angry words and cold shoulders, they noticed him for all the wrong reasons.\u00a0\u00a0Soon they figured out words jumbled on the page for him and easy math frustrated him.<\/p>\n Then they wondered,\u00a0 \u201cWhy?\u201d and \u00a0\u201cWhat\u2019s going in his mind and his heart?\u201d<\/p>\n So, they pulled him from in between his siblings and the other students. They pulled him out on his own and saw him as he is\u2014kind and gentle, sweet and smart, loyal and strong.<\/p>\n Bright and full of life.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n And they learned something that this boy\u2019s mother knew all along; there is a constant thrum of energy right underneath his skin that makes his voice a little louder and his mind race a little faster. She knew his kindness turned to anger easily when the words or numbers evaded him and his commitment to his vision, his ideas, and his heart is stronger and fiercer than they\u2019ll ever know.\u00a0 They called him inflexible. \u00a0She called him loyal.<\/strong><\/p>\n But she didn\u2019t have the right words to describe her bright boy, until they\u00a0gave her four letters for his condition. ADHD. \u00a0\u2018Clincal and cold\u2019<\/em>, she thought. Wholly inappropriate for her little man.<\/p>\n So she wondered how to tell him what the others found and she wondered what those four little letters would do to his sensitive heart.\u00a0 And while he was away, enjoying his time in the sun, out from the middle\u2014she knew it.<\/p>\n The house was quieter without his voice. The family\u2019s rhythm was slightly off and their melody out of tune.<\/p>\n And she knew it.<\/p>\n The thrum underneath his skin is his music<\/em>. And this condition, ADHD is his song<\/em>.<\/p>\n And she remembered how she sang, BarlowGirl\u2019s \u201cNever Alone\u201d to him when she protected him in her womb and how that summer right before he was born, she couldn\u2019t listen to Alicia Key\u2019s, \u201cDiary\u201d enough.\u00a0 And she remembered how he could sing on pitch as a toddler and played a whole sheet of music at percussion camp like beats and measures made up the double helix of his DNA.<\/p>\n And she knew this in between of learning how to form that music into a symphony will be hard on both of them,\u00a0but she was committed.\u00a0 Loyal.\u00a0 Inflexible<\/em>, you may say, to see it through.<\/p>\n Because this will be his song.<\/p>\n A song of hope.<\/p>\n A song of joy.<\/p>\n A song of love.<\/p>\n A song of victory.<\/p>\n A song that will set him apart.<\/p>\n From out of his brother\u2019s shadow and out of his sister\u2019s line of vision.<\/p>\n So, baby.\u00a0 This is my story for you.\u00a0 It\u2019s super-awesome and so are you.\u00a0 And I will harmonize to your melody no matter how frenetic it may be and I will grab onto our Savior for a steadying rhythm to keep us in time.\u00a0 And I will tune my ear to the thrum underneath your skin and sing that you are \u201cNever Alone\u201d, \u00a0baby.\u00a0 You are never alone.\u00a0 You are never alone.<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"IMG_3211\"](\"https:\/\/oshetablogs.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/06\/img_3211.jpg\")
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