This weekend, my youngest son, James, age 23, is getting married.

Suddenly, he seems so grown up and, just as suddenly, I feel just a

bit older. James was the child who, in a sense was our "second" family.

In 1972, Jason was born and his brother John came along in 1974. We

thought we were finished having our family but, in 1980, Cindy wanted

another baby. So, with two children in our home who were almost 9 and

7, James was born in western Colorado in the spring of 1981.

James was our "wanderer." He was barely a year old when,

somehow without our knowledge, he awoke from his nap and managed to

open the kitchen door to our home in Grand Junction, Colo., and escape.

Cindy thought he was napping right up until a knock on the door revealed

a neighbor from half a mile away who had brought him home. A few months

later, he escaped from the nursery one Sunday morning at the downtown

church we attended and eluded every adult as he broke free to wander

the streets downtown. When he was discovered to be missing, a frantic

search ensued until he was found sitting on the front porch of one

of the city's residents several blocks away.

So, it didn't really surprise me when, on his 18th birthday, without

telling a soul and foiling all our well-laid plans for him, he enlisted

in the U. S. Air Force. After his graduation from East Coweta High

School, he left for Texas and began basic training. A bright kid, he

went through the elite Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA and

attended several technical schools in a couple of states. He has a

top secret security clearance and can't talk about what he does, which

seems to delight him, knowing that he can keep his mother and me in

the dark about something.

I knew that James would be successful way back when he was in middle

school. James went out for the cross-country team even though, in his

own words, he isn't that interested in sports. During the season, he

developed painful shin splints but decided to run in a competition

anyway. Midway through the event, his face became contorted with pain.

I watched through binoculars and whispered at him to just drop out

and walk back. With each step he took, his face was skewered up in

agony and his teeth were clenched. He came in last by a long way, but

he never quit. I would have quit, but he didn't. That was the day I

knew he had the guts to do whatever it would take to make a good life

for himself.

He met his bride-to-be, Leslie Meyer, in San Antonio. She's from New

Mexico and is in the Air Force, too. She also has a top secret clearance,

so I guess I will just have to get used to them keeping secrets from

me. I guess they can talk to each other, but I'm not sure. She's a

quiet, sweet, pretty blonde that we have just fallen in love with.

We've told her things about him that we felt she needed to know, like

his tendency to build traps during the night in order to capture his

brothers when they came home from work or a date. We told her about

his tendency to take all his clothes off in the middle of the night,

pile them on his bed, and wet on them. Of course he was a toddler then,

but she needs to be aware of traps and strange habits. One never knows

when such things might resurface.

Still, she wants to marry him, even after meeting his rather unusual

family. Someone at church asked if she was still going to marry him

even after being at one of our Sunday dinners. I'll just say that we're

not the typical stereotype of a minister and his family and leave it

at that. And, yes, she is going to marry him. His brothers are serving

as "best men" and I will administer the Sacrament of Holy

Matrimony. His mother will cry and the people who have prayed for our

family for the last eight years at Christ the King will be in attendance

to see what their prayers have wrought. Leslie's family, having made

the long trip from New Mexico will be there to see their beautiful

bride walk down the aisle.

Next month, having completed their tour of duty, they both leave the

Air Force, he a staff sergeant and she a senior airman, and will likely

move away from Texas. They are talking about Denver and other cities

where their skills can be used. James, I have realized, is still a

wanderer. But, every so often, he wanders