Birthday

On this 32nd birthday, I feel quite blessed and thankful. Birthdays make you look back and measure how far you have come. Like pencil markings once proved on doorframes in my childhood.. I have grown.

I am hardly the same woman I was a year ago and even more from the woman I was 10 years before that.. I am evolving and hopefully between the ups and downs, I am better for it all.

Today, my girls showered me with love from break of day to the last good night kisses. My mom gave me big mom birthday hugs and offered to watch my girls for the day. I shared lunch with a dear friend and had much of the rest of my day to do what I fancied.. alone to boot, although that turned out to be more like errands to the pharmacy and the tag office!! I returned home to learn my beautiful little man had sat up on his own in the crib for the first time. My husband then appeared and made me feel like a queen with the gift of an hour out for a very rare-to-moi pedicure while he bought and cooked up a delicious dinner for us all. My most amazing son, who in many ways knows best how much I grew this year..well, he gave me the best of his most contagious and delicious crys of joy tonight while we played on the floor. God has given me so much.

There was sadness also for me today with the news of the passing of a sweet little girl, Eithene, who I had grown to know and love from afar. I know I did not really know her personally but I have followed her journey through her mother's words and have cried and hurt for them. She fought a hard battle with mitochondrial disease, along with many other health challenges. Her family has been so strong in their faith. I am praying for her family most of all because I know although her life was short, her pain is gone and God has saved an incredible place just for her, a place far befitting her sweet love of all things princess. It is an incredibly horrible pain to imagine.. the loss of your child. Her memory won't be lost. She made a mark on this world and on so many lives. When I was having my darkest days of worry and fear for Sammy, I found myself pulled together by her smiles and her mother's faith. I pray the Lord holds them close in his arms. Good night, sweet princess.