A Decade Later...

On July 28th this guy hit double digits! I don't think I have ever been more proud of you than I was on your birthday this year. I came home from the hospital on your birthday, there were no presents neatly wrapped, no homemade cake, no friends over to celebrate. But you could not have been more cheerful! You kept hugging me and checking on me and telling me how happy you were that I was home from the hospital...and that five days of me in the hospital felt like forever to you.

Mimi took you out for a special birthday dinner just you and her. This was fun as one on one time is a rarity in a house with four children. The following day we plopped the birthday hat on you and enjoyed a meal together that was prepared and brought by one of my MOPS friends {they have been faithfully feeding our family during recovery!}

Then we sang to you over a crab cake. Dad bought that as it reminded him of Sponge Bob and how you love that silly show! I talked about how the day you were born was the saddest day of my life. {Hang on I'll explain}. But today August 9th, a decade ago today, was one of the happiest days! See you were born too early and the minute you came out you were blue. Luckily, I had the instinct to grab and hold you before they called the NICU team to whisk you away. You needed all kinds of wires, drugs, and tubes to keep your little lungs open. I longed to hold you. It made me sick to have the little guy I carried inside me for nine months a whole floor away. And when they told me it was time for me to go home but you had to stay behind I felt so torn. It was so unnatural.

August 9th was the day your little lungs opened and stayed open on their own. I could hold you!!! It was such a wonderful moment to finally have your little warm body against mine.

Now a decade later I watch you knock them down on the football field. You hold your own with your brother. You carry and lift things for ME. Your such a strong person inside and out and I so admire you for that! I hope you always know how much I love you and how proud I am of the guy you have become!