Happy 26th Birthday to Son #4

My fourth son is turning 26 today.  This is the third birthday post I've written in his honor since beginning this blog in the spring of 2011.  The first one appeared on this date in 2012, if you'd like to read that.  It pretty much tells you all you need to know about this sweet boy of mine--including my favorite story about the way he reacted when he first made his entrance into the world, all eleven-ish pounds of him, and met his mommy for the first time face-to-face.

Son #4--as I so have so imaginatively named him for the purposes of this blog--is incredibly funny (and I don't even quite know how to describe his keen and offbeat sense of humor), but he also has a very serious side.  He's a handsome, intelligent, talented, faith-filled, and successful young man, but he's also extremely humble and can even be a little too self-deprecating.  I would say his most endearing trait is that he remains a great big child at heart.  In a good way.

Here's how my boy looked at four.

Wasn't he a dapper little lad.?  Quite the little heartthrob, if you ask me.  (But if you think he went around all the time with his hair neatly slicked back like it is in this photo, you are sadly mistaken.)

Now here he is as he looks today, happy and in love, with his beautiful fiancée--who will be his bride in less than a month!--at his side.

I adore this boy.  But today I'm feeling a little betrayed by him...because how could he go and get all grown up like that, without even consulting me?!  This is something all five of my sons have done, and--sheesh!!--don't I get a say in it?

I'm just kidding, though.  All I have to do is look at this recent engagement shoot photo of son #4 with his soon-to-be better half, and I am reminded of how very, very blessed I am.  God gave me five sons to raise and to love; and now I've lived long enough to have the privilege of seeing three of them (so far!) find the women who will love them the way I love their father.

Happy Birthday, JRP!