My, What Big Eyes You Have

I've got my fourth son on the brain these days, as he has just begun his six-month deployment overseas.  (For those of you who are praying for my boy, I want to take this opportunity to say a great big THANK YOU!)  He has already been in contact with us via e-mails, texts, calls, and Skype.  God bless modern technology!

This son was one ding-dang cute first-grader, I'll tell you.  When my husband and I took a gander at his school picture that year, we just about died.  The expression on his face gave a whole new meaning to the term "wide-eyed."  His teacher was Sr. Ann, who had all five of our boys when they were in first grade--because even though there were two classes for each grade and students were supposed to be randomly placed between the two teachers, Sister liked getting to know all the siblings in the big families and she was good at getting her way.  At our first parent-teacher conference with Sr. Ann the year she had son #4, she told us how much she loved him and how much she loved his picture.  "Oh, those eyes of his! God love him, those big blue eyes!" she gushed.

Yeah, they were big all right!

Circa 1994.

I can't look at this adorable picture without smiling.  What is up with that trance-like expression?  I think our boy must have just gotten the word on the street (make that the tarmac of the St. Mary's fenced-in recess area), by way of urban legend (make that suburban rural legend), that his killer Pog collection would most certainly one day be worth millions and millions of dollars.  Not to mention his precious stash of rare and valuable Pokemon cards.

Ahhh...those were the days, were they not?

Keep those prayers coming, if you wouldn't mind.  Hopefully the time will fly and before we know it, he'll be on his way back home...with this same crazy-joyful look on his face.