I’m extremely privileged to have had the honor of raising my son, James. We are very close – too close, some might say. We just get each other.  I’m not speaking as a deluded mother when I say that he is kind, respectful, soft-spoken, insightful, makes great decisions, is extremely tender-hearted, brilliant, handy, gifted, and hilarious. And rather handsome – but that part is totally subjective.

Everyone that knows James knows that he was a Marine before he was two years old, certainly long before he joined the United States Marine Corps. He constantly played combat games physically and virtually. Whenever he first met another kid, he would pull out the two forefingers he was sucking and say with the cutest possible lisp, “Hi, my name is Jameth. Wanna wrethle?”

His favorite song as a kid was “Everything is Awesome.” He lived life like a tornado and ran and jumped everywhere. He whistled as a baby. His hands and mouth were always busy. His nervous system craved an intense sensory diet: he was a highly tactile child and loved touching soft things to calm himself, especially while he sucked his two aforementioned fingers; he loved spicy foods from a young age; he delighted in and sought high impact contact such as wrestling for proprioception. He hated being part of the famously boy-friendly Boy Scouts because that was too much sitting around quietly for him.

When He watched the movie ‘Home Alone,’ he jumped up and down on the couch in ecstatic glee as the kid trumped the bad guys over and over. As a result, my yarn was constantly missing mid-project as he used it to booby-trap the house to catch bad guys. He asked a million questions about the bad guys. Even while his car-seat faced backward, he wanted to know if the guy he just saw was a ‘bad guy.’

“Why do you think he’s a bad guy?” I’d ask.

“Because he’s dirty.”

So I taught him that clean cut people – men, women, and kids – could be bad guys. He furrowed his brow and sucked his two fingers furiously, contemplating and integrating that new knowledge.

“If that ‘bad guy’ hurts anyone, mom, I’m going to kick him in the nuts and push him into the blackberry bushes,” he informed me, as a matter of fact.

James dressed in camo at all times. His favorite Bible character was ‘John the Baddest.’ Why? “Because he wore camo and ate bugs in the wilderness.”

He and his brother’s physical agility was unrivaled, even as young kids. James especially loved climbing and tumbling. By the time he was eight years old, his dad regularly took him mountain climbing where he ran circles around experienced, older hikers. “Dad, we could do this twice a month. Would that be too much?”

In grade school he took karate for 4 years with a sensei who fantasized that he was a drill sergeant. At 15 James joined the Washington County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue department as a searcher. He served for 2 ½ years as one of their best searchers – passionately attending every single search and training (he would show up at least an hour early.)  He then joined and graduated from the county Junior Law Enforcement Academy. Last summer he independently researched, applied for, attended, and graduated from the Junior FBI Academy program.

In his senior year of high school, he knew he didn’t want to go to college. As part of the Student Body Leadership, he invited the local US Marine office to have a recruiting booth at his high school. He then promptly used that contact to apply for entry. In January he started working out with the Marines every Saturday as well as working out daily at school, at home, and in the community. He continued to love and climb local mountains. He led trusted friends, many older than him, to go with him on arduous hikes he researched and organized.

He loved his job at Tree to Tree, a nearby, thrilling playground in the trees featuring aerial ropes courses, zip lines, wobbly bridges, tightropes, and tree top obstacles unlike anything you’ve ever seen before! He also loved sleeping outside, first on the porch on wooden patio furniture as a little kid, then in the woods, even on cold, wet nights. He loves back roads and exploring on his own, with his brother, or with a friend.

Everyone that knows James knows that he was a Marine long before he joined the United States Marine Corps.

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He went off to the Marines yesterday, July 14th, 2025. Last night as I thought of him on his first night away, I thought of this laser-focused 18-year-old warrior who lives his life like a driven spear. In 90 days, he will come back as a different man.

I was summoned in my spirit to take a 90-day personal challenge to do some hard things. I determined to renew my mind and take action in various aspects of my life to bring about much-needed transformation.

I want to do this in his honor and so he comes back to an equally revolutionized person. It would be a betrayal of sorts to have him come back a changed person, and for me to still be the same person he left. No matter how hard my challenges, nothing will come close to what he will endure – and overcome – in boot camp. I’d like to invite you to join me in a 90-day personal transformation journey. Each day I’ll aim to post a challenge to encourage you in taking the steps you need to be the person God made you to be. Will you take a dare with me? Today he gets his head shaved and who knows what else. My first challenge is to resuscitate my blog, so here I am. Here is a visual of their daily events.

Action steps:

1. Leave me a comment regarding this blog and include an area you could use actionable accountability in.
2. Please share this blog with someone you know could use encouragement and community in order to implement some changes.

Semper fi!