A new Caleb emerging

I'll admit I am having a hard time fitting this entry into the "emerging conversation" here, but I guess, really, THIS is what it's all about. This is my 15 year old son Caleb, who just got his braces off yesterday (I think the the $4000 and three years were worth it, don't you???). Caleb has been a bit, shall we say LAZY this year at school...but somehow, in the last week, another Caleb is emerging...his principal said sometimes between a young man's sophomore year and junor year, IT kicks in (meaning, a bit more responsibility). Today as I was leaving the Pathways meeting, pulling out of the parking lot of the Conference office in Columbia, Cabie called. He said, "I've got all of my homework done!" and then he listed off all he had done; even some old assignments that he had missed; that his new girlfriend (thank you Jesus) Melissa, who is a year older than he is helped him understand Geometry last night.. I, the ever-suspicious mother asked, "Are you telling me you'd like to go out tonight...?" No, said Caleb, I just wanted you to know I had all my homework done. And then he proceeded to tell me he was wearing "normal" clothes now, not the tight skinny jeans he has been wearing for a year. Knowing that I had not seen him since he got the braces off, he started telling me the reaction of people to him. One of the funniest things was that he said one of the secretaries at the orthodontist office took a look at him and whispered something under her breath. I asked him what she said, and he said he didn't know but "whatever it was made me feel really good." Then he said, "Mom, I've turned into your dream!!!"--he had cut his hair short earlier in the week, which he knows I like, too. Well, kiddo, I hate to tell you, but you were my dream even when you had skinny jeans and 2 grubby looking little dreads in your bed-head hair and you had braces on. Now, if we can just get this church thing straightened out, and IF the United Methodist church can find a way to respond to people like you, Caleb, and tell the old, old stories, in new new ways, then, that will make the dream even more vivid and even more wonderful