Happy 24th Birthday Andrew

I Samuel 1 :27,28

For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of Him;; So, I have dedicated him to the Lord as long as he liveth.

Most of you know already how I prayed to have a son. After placing our first son in the arms of Jesus, it was my longing to hold a son in my arms again someday. Our next baby was a beautiful baby girl, Rebecca. What healing her life brought to my heart! What joy I had when 10 months later I learned we were having another child. I longed for a son, but with the two of them being so close, I thought another girl would be nice. Jennifer joined our family and the 2 girls became instant friends, it was so fun dressing them alike, and I knew in my heart that someday we would have another child. Another pregnancy, this time to be our last, or so we thought. Situations like no job and no room in the house and no money were making that decision for us, then to find out my health wasn't so good either. While in labor, this baby I was carrying was having the same problems as our first baby, and an emergency C-Section was performed.

Another baby girl was placed into my arms, a sick baby girl with heart problems. I can't even begin to tell you how my heart broke as I thought that God might be asking me to give up another child. Sarah Rose came into our lives and into our hearts! Two weeks later at Children's Hospital for follow up checks on her heart, which had a hole in it. the doctors were amazed at how the hole was healed! They said it must be a miracle! I said God healed her heart and mine that day! And all the time God was saying, Won't you just trust me? Many times since that day, I am reminded of how my God healed my baby girl and me! After that I knew we should be done having children, but the longing in my heart to have a son just never seemed to go away. I would stand in the aisle at stores and look at trucks and boy toys, wiping away tears as my 3 little girls said, mommy can we look at barbies? A couple years later and to our complete surprise, I was expecting again! Wow, it was not in our plans!!!!!! But certainly in God's!

Toward the end of that pregnancy I had to have an ultra sound because I became a diabetic (remember this was in the olden days when they didn't do ultra sounds standardly). I asked the tech if she could tell what the baby was, she said she was not allowed to tell me, I grabbed her lab coat and said PLEASEEEEEEEEEE... so she made a copy of the picture, turned it over and drew the "boy" parts then left the room. I could not believe my eyes!

It was a boy!!!!!!!!!! I started to cry so hysterically they had to call in a social worker, and when they finally figured out it was happy tears, they stopped worrying!

I rejoiced in each new thing my children did, and enjoyed each "girl" and "boy" thing! I am so thankful that God took that decision right out of our hands and blessed us with our hearts longing and desire.

As the years have passed, it's been hard to let each of my children go... go off and be their own person and family. It's something I will always struggle with. I find it exceptionally hard to do this with my son, and I'm so proud of the way he is making a new life and family!

So, Happy 24Th Birthday my son!!!!!

I am so proud of the man you are today!

I love you

Mom