Today my baby boy turns 7! We woke up and had all the neighbors over that generally walk to school with us in the morning come over and we had spongebob birthday cake and ice cream and bacon for breakfast. My son LOVES bacon and spongebob, not necessarily in that order.
This morning before the rush of people came I sat and cuddled with him (shhhh don't tell his friends, how embarrassing!) and told him about the morning he was born. My kids never tire of hearing the story of how they were born and I never tire of telling them. I can still see the morning, feel the emotions, remember the look on my husband's face. We knew this little baby would be our last (unless God really, really surprises us). I experienced pre-eclampsia with 3 out of 4 of my pregnancies and this last little baby really took a toll on my kidneys. I want to be around to raise the children I have and each pregnancy created a little more struggle for my body. This last pregnancy I went for a routine check-up in my 39th week and was sent straight to labor and delivery - by myself, in a snowstorm. My husband was at home with our 3 small children and he couldn't leave them to come and be with me. I prayed to God begging that I not have the baby until he could be there. We had been together for all of our children's births and I couldn't imagine bringing a baby into this world without him by my side. I knew he would be devastated to not be the first set of eyes this child would see.
God answered my prayers and I was released the next day to go home on strict bedrest, up for the bathroom only. Praise God my mother could come and she flew in to us and when she got settled in, very quickly, we went back to the hospital. Baby #4, my 2nd little boy arrived the next morning. And he has been pure Joy from the moment he was born.
All my kids entered this life as their own person and I just feel blessed to know and be allowed to love them so unconditionally and deeply - even if they don't realize this all the time. All four of them are so different and distinct from one another and yet share the same internal heart, God's heart and my heart, interweaved for them, guiding them, guarding them, loving them and praying for them. My 7yr old son, he teaches me Joy. I have always been an introverted soul, keeping my outward emotions and actions tightly contained within myself. People who sit next to me would be amazed to know how inside my soul dances and is exuberant, in my head I lift my voice in joyful praise and sometimes I feel as though my soul is going to jump out of my skin I am so alive. On the outside I am very calm, still and sometimes even come off as stoic. But my little boy he dances and sings, and he enters his own world sometimes and I watch him from across a room and he throws his body into life with energy and adrenaline and excitement and he is so purely innocent and so purely happy. He is that Joy I feel, He is that Joy my soul is exclaiming. He is the living, tangible inner workings of my soul. And he invites me into that Joy, with him I dance around the room and I laugh those deep belly laughs of pure happiness, with him I am completely at home being silly and foolish. I run around the yard with him, swing at the playground, do belly flops into the pool, jump on the bed and fly through the air into a big pile of pillows. Watching his joy expressed has given me permission to be joy expressed. What a gift he is to all who know him - because it is not just me, he is charm personified and no one escapes it!
I thank you God for the gift of my son. I thank you for 7years of pure Joy and love. I thank you that you protect and guide him, that you are leading him on a path meant only for him and you have opened his eyes and his heart to you. I love to hear him pray, in his little boy voice and I thank you for his praying heart that thanks you "that God created the whole world and everything in it", that is his signature prayer right now. I ask you loving God, humbly and on my knees, stay with my son, never let him out of your sight, guide him all the days of his life, keep his Joy intact and allow him opportunity to share that Joy with all who meet him so that he might glorify you, always and everywhere! Amen!
And I say eat cake for breakfast!
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