Happy 8th Birthday Colin!

Oh wow....how can it be that this baby boy is 8?  Those long 9 months went on forever and these 8 years flew.  I am so happy to have this child!  So much could have gone wrong and yet here he is.  He was an easy baby in the womb.  He didn't kick too much and that was a good thing due to my kidney problems.  I was in constant pain and often wondered if I would ever make it through it and often wondered if I wanted to make it through it all.  That is complete honesty!  Chronic, excruciating pain is unbelievable to live through.  Your mind plays tricks on you and you live in a bit of a fog.  I so understand the way people deal with severe pain.  It is totally an out of body experience.  Some is from the cocktails of meds and the other is from your brain trying to sort through the pain.  Everything was hard!  Meds had awful side effects and not taking the meds brought on pain and more pain.

     We were new in town and had few friends.  God is so faithful and the few we had saw an incredible need and filled it.  They checked on us constantly and introduced us to people who took us in as friends even though we had little to give back.  I lived for moments when Caleb would get off the school bus to come home and read to me.  He was in 1st grade and so excited about reading.  I hated that I had to put him on the bus, but there was no other way.  I had to remain fairly immobile and when I did get out it took everything out of me.  Caroline played with our sweet dog all day and he seemed to know how important his job was and he allowed her to dress him up and put him in her doll strollers. I desperately wanted this baby, but things were hard and potentially risky and fuzzy.  I just remember focusing on NOT being in pain, or NOT needing to go to the hospital yet again for another stent or for dehydration or whatever else....After all that and him come by scheduled C Sec due to them not wanting to risk my kidney by me going into labor.  He was the healthiest baby....a week early and everything.  No lungs collapsing, no oxygen, no heat lamps.  He was just adorable!  And then I was almost pain free...had to wait a few weeks for surgery to remove the stent and blast those stones!  God is good!  He is here and a joy to his mother (and family).  He makes us laugh and teaches us so many things.  He is 8!

I would post pictures, but we are having technical difficulties with old pictures.