Anthony recently sent me these amazing photos he took during his most recent flight. I literally still cannot believe my baby can is learning how to fly.
Every day I think about how thankful I am he has this opportunity to work towards his dream of becoming a pilot. And every day I am so proud of him for all of his hard work. It hasn't been easy, but he is persevering.
Timothy and Anthony have shared a room for about a decade.
Timothy was excited to finally have a room all to himself after Anthony left for college last fall. He had grand plans to redo the whole space. While I wanted Timothy to be able to have his own space and set up the bedroom how he envisioned it, I really struggled to allow this. As excited as I was for him, my heart hurt for Anth. In a perfect world, the kids would have all had their own rooms, and when they left for college, their rooms would remain the same. A loving time capsule until they were ready to pack things up themselves. But that's not what our situation is.
I really didn't want Anthony to feel like we were erasing him, and I wanted him to have his room, exactly as is, to come home to during the first months of college...at the very least. I finally convinced Timothy to wait until after Christmas break before we made any changes.
When Anth came home on Christmas break, I let him know that we were gearing up to let Timothy make over the room. We had multiple conversations about it, and we gave him the time and space to say goodbye to his room. This completely tortured my heart. Anthony sitting at his computer desk in the closet almost broke me. I think he is really good at being stoic. I'm sure he was feeling all the feels, but did well not to show it. I had to leave the room to keep from bawling like a baby.
I literally cannot with these angelic photos of my soul pup! Haha! Some lucky shots I was able to get with the clouds and fog.
With love, Mama Hauck
Anth left this past weekend to head back to campus. It was hard to watch him go. The hug before he left though...perfect, despite me bawling into his shoulder.
And so while wallowing in my sadness over him leaving, I like to do silly things like hop on the computer to look back on photos to make myself more sad, lol. But also happy. You know, that bitter sweet feeling.
While scrolling through photos, I remembered this one I took.
5 piles of laundry on the kitchen table. 1 for each of us.
With love, Mama Hauck
This whole moving away from home and going to college chapter has been new, scary, and hard. But Anthony is persevering. He keeps going.
Periodically, when I know he has been having a particularly hard day or week, I'll write him. A text. An email. A post card. A letter. Sometimes I feel as if there isn't much I can do to help make this chapter feel easier for him. But at least I can love and support him.
With normal finals done and out of the way, Anthony is now gearing up to take his Stage 1 Flight and Ground final. I know he has been stressed about it. It's taken a lot of flight hours and studying. It's SO much information to take in, understand, and absorb.
Over Christmas break, I got the opportunity to write something else for him.
Flashcards.
I helped him go over his study notes and condense them into flashcards he could use to study. This took some time, as it was a lot of material, but I enjoyed every second of it. The sun was shining. My tea was hot. The house was warm and cozy. We had food to snack on. Anth was as cute as could be. The moment was perfect.
New Years Eve is Sammy's birthday. Some years we have thrown parties, other years we've sat at home doing nothing together.
This year, with the majority of Anthony's friend group home...either from college, on leave, or off work, we knew we had to have a gathering. There might not be too many more chances. We just never know.
And so Anthony wrote to all of his friends. His core group he's grown up with, and the ones who came later on. Only 3 boys couldn't make it.
It was such a fun day. My heart just LOVED seeing all the boys together, and hearing each of them talk about how life was going for them. Kevin and Jacob chatted endlessly about their military journey thus far. Christian and Rowan talked about seeking work and getting that cash. Anth, Owen, Carson, and Storey told stories about college, and how two of them have made the decision to leave college to pursue new paths. And the boys still in high school looked at all of them like they couldn't wait for a taste of it.
I got to visit with two of my friends, Amanda and Kristen, and we had an amazing time talking about anything and everything, while always keeping one ear and one eye on our sweet, grown up boys.
Sam floated around, enjoying every second of his birthday surrounded by all these people we have watched grow up, and who we love.
Molly was in the mix for a bit, but then left for a friend's house. And Tim, unfortunately, just started feeling unwell that morning. So other than coming out for a photo and some food, he chilled in bed.
