We were taking a risk when we agreed that our 16-year-old son could go on a two-week Florida vacation without us. There's no such thing as an uneventful experience where Bailey is concerned. It took great faith to send him away with his best friend's family as we stayed behind waiting to receive news of his adventures. Thankfully, they came by text, e-mail or phone and not through the national news or FBI bulletins.

The first communiqué was classic Bailey. It read: "Hey family, How's it going? Things in Florida are great. We hooked two sharks off the beach yesterday but the line snapped. Bummer huh? I miss the family but the relaxation of doing absolutely nothing while I'm sitting on the beach sipping root beer from a bottle kind of compensates for that. I'm also really glad that I'm a single man cuz da hunnies is fine. You know what I'm sayin'? I'm having to beat them off with a stick. Tell Dad I love him and that I will try to let the ladies down easy. Also tell the family I said hi. Hope y'all don't miss me too much. Love, Bailey 'The Ladies Man' Wier"

Over the next week I received three text messages containing surprising information. It turns out only two were true; the third was for dramatic effect to lesson the shock of the others. In convincing fashion Bailey reported that 1) A shark took a bite out of his ankle 2) His cell phone sank to the ocean floor 3) He shaved his head bald. I was fairly confident that he did indeed lose his cell phone. He recently lost his video camera, iPod, and skateboard ($cha-ching). We had not allowed him to spend his first paycheck on an expensive phone as he planned, warning that losing it on vacation was a distinct possibility. Of course he remembers it differently.

"It's a good thing I decided not to get a new phone right now, huh mom?"

As for the other revelations, I couldn't decide which would be more tragic. Of course, I would want him to be spared from a major shark bite that could leave him maimed for life, but it was unthinkable to imagine my son without his enviable head of auburn hair. I didn't have to image it; he sent a picture. Envision Telly Savalas, taller, skinnier and covered with freckles.

The good news is I don't need to worry about 'da hunnies." Until his hair grows back, he can forget about Telly's famed question: "Who loves ya baby?" His is a scalp only a mother could love. When I finally had the opportunity to question his friend's parents, I found out they were just as surprised by Bailey's impulse.

"He came downstairs without any warning with his hair shaved off, except he'd used the wrong kind of clippers leaving little springs of long red hair randomly sticky out all over his shaved head. There was nothing I could do but finish the job."

But don't forget — the good news is he was not eaten by a shark. Oddly, that truth is comforting. Bad news, in all its diversity, is diminished when we remember the significant good news that brings us hope.

"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body ... because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence ... Therefore we do not lose heart ... For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:8-18

Bailey is bald, but not half eaten. I am older, but still alive. In this life we have trouble, but in the life to come, glory awaits.