Unintentional Humor, Courtesy of the Big Boy

I had a lovely Mother's Day. Complete with presents, a custom-grilled lunch by Chef Hawkeye, and lots of love from my boys.

My favorite present? A book that Big Boy made at school. He didn't mean it to be funny. But oh, it is.

Top Ten Reasons Why I Love My Mom, by Big Boy

#1: Well, you're my mom! (translated: doesn't that mean I HAVE to love you?)
#2: Because you're preety (hee, hee!)
#3: You cook DELICIOUS meals (translated: hey, we gave you a new stockpot, can you finally make me some homemade chicken noodle soup?)
#4: You take me on trips
#5: You love me (this made me think of the Barney song)
#6: You get me presents
#7: You buy me books
#8: You buy me toys (perhaps he's a bit materialistic?)
#9: You don't homeschool me (this one really cracked me up, and he totally didn't get why. He's quite serious, and all I'm thinking is that he's thanking me for not cooping him up in the house with me all day. I have no idea where this came from -- I have two dear friends who homeschool, and it's not like we've ever discussed it. Oh, the workings of that boy's mind!)
#10: You are the best mommy you can be (or, you can't help it that you can't do any better, you're just doing your best with what you have, poor thing)

Ya'll. So funny. The last ten years have been lots of growing and stretching and worrying and praying and changing, but so fun. These boys of mine amaze me every day!

So, That's How I Learned I'm Not in Control. The End.

The big boy had a rough 3-4 months, but left the hospital healthy and hasn't looked back since.

So, for anyone who is uncertain of God's care and His mercy, I can tell you -- your child is so safe in His hands. The one who created that child and knew him before you did (see Psalm 139) loves him more than you are even capable of loving.

I find that so comforting. Especially when I am looking at a completely normal, wonderful 10-year-old boy who survived and has thrived, without any long-term disabilities from his prematurity. That's God's hand. I don't know why, or what God has planned for his future, but I know that He's the one who has gotten us this far, and He doesn't change.

That makes it easier to give Him control of our direction. I know, now, that He is who He says He is, and that He is so much more capable than I am. And I am being reminded by our new Bible study of Philippians that my purpose is to glorify Him in everything. So I will, today, choose to remember what He has done, and look forward to what He is doing and will do in the future.

This time ten years ago . . .

That afternoon, I started feeling labor pains again. The biggest problem was that the monitor wasn't picking them up (I'm not a tiny girl, and monitors aren't designed for women who are barely 24 weeks pregnant). So, none of us realized how much worse they were getting until later that afternoon. I had been given terbutaline sulfate all along, but it wasn't working, so they tried magnesium sulfate. That didn't work either. As the evening wore on, the pains seemed to be slowing down, so my mom went home. They hadn't slowed down enough, though. And then they were intensifying again, and the nurse couldn't get the big boy on the fetal monitor. That's when things got very hectic.

The hospital had sent in a nenonatologist (a doctor who specializes in treating premature infants) to talk to us. Her prognosis was: a) our son would not live; b)if he lived, he would be profoundly mentally handicapped for life; c) he would never walk or live a normal life. Now, it's their job to be cold-eyed realists, but wow. We were scared enough to begin with, and I'm not sure that was really helpful.

Anyway. When things got hectic, the doctor (whom I had never laid eyes on before) decided that he had to deliver the baby. Now. So, off we are racing to the delivery room. We make it to the elevator, he uses a key to call it, and they're rolling my bed into it. Only the bed doesn't fit. So, rolling the bed back out again and calling another elevator. When we get to the delivery room, the Hawkeye can't stay with me. I'm in hard labor and scared to death. When we get into the delivery room, all I remember is the anesthesiologist was very worried about his paperwork, and how he couldn't put me under without it. I really could have decked him, I think.

Anyway, it was an emergency c-section, and the Hawkeye says they had the Big Boy out in under a minute. They let the Hawkeye look at him briefly, then whisked this tiny, fragile little life (he weighed 1 lb, 9 ozs and was 12 inches long) off to the NICU. Thus began our lives as parents.

This picture is the Big Boy, right before he turned one year old.

He's 10 Today!

Ten years today, I was waking up in the hospital. About four days prior, I had been awakened from a deep sleep (all my sleep is deep, a family trait, I guess) by labor pains. I was 23 1/2 weeks pregnant, and scared to death. I woke up my husband, called my doctor, and we raced to the hospital (no mean feat in Atlanta when the hospital is 40 minutes away and involves travel on two different interstates).

When we got to the hospital, a nurse examined me. She must have the best poker face in all the world, because I had no idea anything was really wrong. She said she would get the doctor and left. Later, she said that she had felt a foot. Obviously that wasn't right, but again, I didn't know that yet. The doctor came in (not my doctor), examined me, and brutally informed us of a string of facts: 1. I would not be leaving the hospital until my baby was born, as the amniotic sac was bulging out and that was why I was having labor pains; 2. She was ordering a steroid shot (for the baby's lungs) and for me to be put on a negative incline (called Trendellenburg) in the bed to hopefully allow gravity to work with us; 3. She didn't have a lot of hope in all of this.

We were frantic. I cried a lot, my mom cried a lot, the Hawkeye just looked very stunned and tried to deal with the crying women.

So, this was how I found myself waking up in the hospital the morning of May 5. Just like every other morning up until then. I had no idea that Big Boy would be born that day. But God did. Nothing surprises him.