Happy Birthday Eli!

Today Eli is 3 years old. Its the weirdest thing because last night when I kissed him goodnight he was only 2, and today he woke-up a whole year older. He asked me this morning, "mom are you sad that I'm not your baby anymore? Cause' Jesus can make you happy." Am I that transparent?

I keep a baby book for each of the kids. Eli's is a scrapbook that I lovingly and painstakingly spent hours creating; cutting up dozens of cutesy papers with fancy scissors and working hard to coordinate each page with a theme. As you can probably guess, I got a little smarter when Norah came along and purchased a ready made baby book that just has fill-in-the-blank questions and "place photo here" spots. I'm really not a big fan of either option because I forgot to write down most of Eli's baby milestones in his book and Norah's skips around and has a way-too-unorganized layout for this organizationally obsessive mind.  And neither of them have a place for me to write down the Birth Day story. So, I thought I would take a few minutes on each of their birthdays this year to write down those moments that I don't want to forget, just in case in 10 years when one of them asks me "what time was I born mom?" I wont have to say something like "uh, mid morning honey."
  So please feel free to stop reading here.... heck I probably would if I weren't the star of this story.
 Just kidding, I was only the co-star.

Eli's Birth Story

I was induced at 39 weeks due to low amniotic fluid. We had to be at the hospital at 5am on April 21st , 2008 to get the induction process going. I was so nervous but more than excited to find out if we were having a girl or a boy because we were going to be surprised. If we had a girl her name was going to be Faith and our boy name was Elijah. We had a really peaceful day in our hospital room reading and napping and visiting with the occasional visitor who stopped in. Things just went really smoothly. I got my epidural early and felt nothing except for the rare pressure of a hard contraction, which was painless. My L&D nurse was actually a friend I graduated from nursing school with and she was 8 months pregnant also and just amazing to us. I was sneaking bites of Cheez-its throughout the day because I was starving and forbidden from eating anything except popsicles until after the birth. Please people, is that really necessary?John was paranoid about me breaking the rules and was getting on me that we were going to get caught, but after I shot him a look with the evil eye he backed right off and let me to enjoy my crackers.  At 4:45pm I was ready to start pushing and things went quickly from there. At 5:06pm I was holding my son in my arms. I'll never forget the moment when John looked at the baby and announced to me "Its a boy!" You just couldn't beat the sound of pride in his voice and I cherish that moment so. I'll never forget that the song When We All Get To Heaven by Carmen happened to be playing on our ipod as I was pushing, and our doctor walked in the room and said "Hey, what a great tune" as he began to hum along. I'll never forget that the first thing I begged for and promptly scarfed down not an hour after birth was a #1 combo from Wendys with a large Diet Coke, and then immediately regretted it. I'll never forget that moment at 3am in the hospital trying to figure out how to feed my baby, when the reality of exhaustion, overwhelming responsibility, and fear crashed into me like a 10 ton truck and I began to weep. The sweet night nurse sat with me for a while and reassured me that yes, these feelings were normal, and yes, I was going to be a great mom.  She was such a Godsend that woman. And the rest is history...

Dear Eli,

Happy 3rd birthday my little man! Although its so hard to choose just one, I think my favorite quality about you is your tender heart. Even at 3, you are compassionate and care so much for others and I am very proud of that in you. I know that God has something really special planned for a gentle heart like yours, and I pray that we can continue to foster and grow this within you. Your laugh is infectious and your joy brings smiles to all those who know you. More than anything, I pray that you will grow to love Jesus and live your life unashamed for Him. Our God is a big God, so keep on dreaming big. Anything is possible for your life.
Kisses,
 Mommy