[Seek]ing Pictures of The Child

It's Coren's You're-Not-Allowed-To-Be-This-Old day. 

Coren has done a lot of growing in the past year, not only in height but in maturity. It's difficult to believe that this adorable cute, smart, kind child is fifteen years old. It was only yesterday that Coren was a chubby-faced toddler. I swear.

And now Coren is a child who eludes the capture of his visage on camera as if it were second nature. I have spent the past year attempting to document small bits and pieces of this child's life, and usually get photos that look something like this:

It's been an interesting year since this child's last birthday. The first six months were before, the second six months, after. From September 17, 2019 - March 17, 2020, life was what we used to consider normal. Then Covid-19 shut down the world. The last worship service we had in our church before Covid was March 15th. Our March 17th evening @thetable was cancelled. All the big things that Coren was going to do vanished behind the closed doors of quarantine. 

Instead of taking classes at homeschool co-op, acting in a mainstage production, growing in faith at @thetable at our church, being an usher on Sunday mornings, going to the aquarium, visiting museums and science centers, going to dances and other activities at Epoch Arts, visiting family in PA, and spending a week at resident camp at Camp Calumet, Coren instead spent the greater portion of his time during the past six months at home. @ the table became @ your table. Worship went online in the form of pre-recorded videos. Epoch Arts shut down, taking co-op and mainstage and dances and all the things with it. 

Coren did, however, enjoy going in our pastor's pool...

helping surprise his grandparents with a visit from his aunt and cousins...

spending a few days at Calumet (photo by Rob Waterman) ...

hiking ...

and playing lots of video games, board games, and card games with family at home and online games and Dungeons and Dragons with his siblings and friends online. 

Our new normal has given us all a greater appreciation for the ability to spend time with people we love. I feel blessed to have been quarantined with this particular teenager, who will still cuddle with me while we watch movies, who hugs me every night, and who always gives me a Milk Dud.

Happy 15th, Coren Ryu!