Be Safe Little Boy

So, I read this book while pregnant with Archer. It's called, Be Safe Little Boy. It made me cry in the middle of the Christian book store where I was shopping. I happened across it at Amazon last week and ordered it because it's only $5 and apparently I'm a glutton for tears.

I get it today and crack it open, and of course cry big fat tears that almost make my contact lenses fall out. She starts out by saying that the mother holds her new little boy, and as the nurses ask for him to clean him up she realizes her life with him will always be about letting go. And just so you don't think I'm a big baby, I'll share a few lines.

"The boy grew older and for his sixth birthday he got a shiny bike. His mother kissed him on the top of his helmet, stood back, and slowly, very slowly he climed onto the seat. From the place where she watched him start to ride, that mother whistled a quiet whistle. And in her heart, the words went something like this: Be safe little boy. Petal hard little boy, look how much you've grown. Be safe little boy, where you ride little boy. You're not yet on your own. (Karen Kingsbury)

She goes on through each stage of life, football, driving, dating, marriage. And each one talks about how the boy grows a little farther away. The dating one is the hardest for me:

"The years went by like crazy and the boy fell in love. Love meant that his mother would have to share her little boy's heart with someone else."

Geez. Break my heart why don't you. I've told Chance Archer was sleeping with us until he decided he was too old, but now I'm thinking I'll never let him move out. : )