JOY!

That's going to be my word for the year, my mantra, my prayer, my defense, my rallying cry.

JOY

Today....joy came down in big huge cascading sheets

Today, BamBam, who has never earned any academic recognition EVER in his school career, today he was named to the Principal's List for the semester.

Principal' list is better than Honors and slightly less than Headmaster's List. What is means for BamBam is that he made mostly A's with a few B's.

I thought I knew what joy was before, what it meant to say that another human being was "beaming". But all that fell away when I saw the look on his face. Sheer and utter joy and a light that could power the world.

For a child who was struggling with C's and D's last year, pre ADD diagnosis, this was beyond words, it was positively life changing.

Because now.... I can see that he KNOWS deep in his heart, deep in his gut that he can do ANYTHING.

and that my friends is JOY defined.