Today, my 9yo leaves a boy ...

... and, God willing, on Sunday will come home a Marine!

This evening, LegoManiac will spend his first two nights away from kith and kin on what the Young Marines term a Crucible (n, 1 : a vessel of a very refractory material (as porcelain) used for melting and calcining a substance that requires a high degree of heat 2 : a severe test -- from Merriam-Webster's online dictionary). Two nights and three days of living at one of Quanitco's camping sites and enduring physical and mental testing to determine if he's worthy to be a Young Marine.

It's exciting and scary for him.

It's exciting, scary and sad for me -- this will be the first of many times I won't be with him when he meets a challenge head on. This is the first of many times I won't be able to protect him, teach him, prompt him. And that's good and as it should be .... but it's sad, too.

We have turned to Venerable Fr. Vincent Capodanno, also known as the Grunt Padre, who died in Vietnam as a Marine Chaplain, helping his men. Read this guy's story: from the moment he was an adult, he wanted to help others. When Communists were first taking over China, he joined the Maryknolls and became a missionary priest knowing that he would be sent where Catholic priests were not just unwanted, they were killed. He then joined the Chaplain Corps in the Marines to help the men fighting in VietNam. He died helping his men receive absolution under enemy fire. He died for and with his men.

LegoManiac really wants to be a real Marine someday; LegoManiac may want to be a Chaplain some day ... or a dad ... but whatever God has planned for my middle son, Venerable Fr. Capodanno is a GREAT role model for him as he embarks on this and many other challenges throughout his life.

Venerable Fr. Vincent Capodanno,
pray for us and all the recruits this weekend!

Please pray for LegoManiac -- and me too -- over this weekend!