Jake's Graduation

This is Jake. This is Jake pointing at his mom and his Punkin (which Jake has called me since he was a baby) because we are blubbering like two idiots at his 8th grade graduation.

Jake is my sister's son. I was with my sister the minute she found out she was pregnant with Jake, when she decided that being a single mom would be ok, when she found out that no, you are not having a girl, no matter what the other 3 ultrasound techs told you, you are having a boy. I was there the minute they brought Jake from the delivery room to the NICU. I fed Jake his first bottle since his mom was so sick with pre-eclampsia that she didn't see him for the first two days of his life. Jake is as close to being my kid as you can be without actually giving birth to him.

My sister is an amazing mom. She has raised him as a single parent for his whole life. When I got pregnant with the twins, I asked God for healthy babies and to make me as good a mother as my mom and my sister. Hopefully, it is genetic.

Jake is a great kid. Funny, smart, my two think Jake walks on water. Jake is a really kind boy. He doesn't judge by color or by popularity, he is friends with both the popular kids and the not so popular kids. He makes my sister nuts, resulting in the phone calls telling me she is going to kill the boy, but he always manages to straighten out and act right.

Since the boys were born, I have asked God to make them as good kids as Jake.

So yes, Jake, we're blubbering. We're crying tears of pride for the man you are becoming.