My sweetie Jalil got his first job!   He is over the MOON.  I'm over the moon...well a little bit  :-)

He's growing up so fast.....How does 17 years fly in 2 years???   It seems like it he was just turning 13 and at that time...over the moon about being a teenager.

I worry.  I worry about EVERYTHING.   It comes from a lifetime of PREparing him for every little moment of his life. I've spent the last 11 years knowing what his next 3 steps were going to be so that he can manuever through life a little easier and now...as we all know when you have a job with the public, anything can happen.  Right now his excitement over 'growing up'  is taking over the knowledge that surprises will come up when you have a job but like always, I've got an on-going dialque going

"Just take deep breathe's"
"ASK questions."
"Write it down if you have too"
"PAY ATTENTION."
"Focus on what is being said"

These are prompts that hopefully, will be recorded in his mind and he will be able to replay as his day goes by.  Something for him to draw from when he gets overwhelmed.

The best part about it is, his older brother got him the job.  His older brother will be training him.  From the time I was pregnant with Jalil, Okoye had it in his  2 year old head that he was his brother's keeper.  He used to rub my stomach and talk to him in some sort of  language and then tap my belly, smile really big and walk away with this expression of 'okay, we got that strait.'   When I had Jalil, there was never a point of jealousy.  When Jalil went through a stage of having his own language, Okoye  understood him.  And when their father and I got divorced,  without prompting, he just stepped and decided crazily that he was Jalil's protector.  Their connection is a gift from God.  When Okoye was 16, he asked me why Jalil was 'different'.  Not because HE seen it but because someone else had asked him.  ( The anger and heartbreak from that is another post for another day). 

To him...he's just Jalil.  No different.  Just Jalil.

*I wasnt going to go into all this on this post.  I was just going to write the first two paragraphs but the rest just flowed.  I guess I had to get it out somewhere.