Thanksgiving Boy

We celebrated J's birthday with the always-amazing Gillespie chocolate cake (with sourpatch watermelon candies), pizza, root beer and the veggies I required.

Though Thanksgiving is still two days away, J will always be my Thanksgiving boy. Nine years ago we responded to his arrival (one week prior to Thanksgiving in his birth year) with immediate prayers of thanks for many medical and spiritual reasons. His birth marked the fulfillment of many prayerful petitions made in the years before and the hour and minutes just preceding his arrival.

I had such an immediate physical reaction as I was overcome with gratitude and love for the opportunity to have this little baby. I remember how the doctor held him up just above my foot and my throat closed up so that I couldn't talk, my eyes blurred with tears so that I couldn't see, my chest rose as I inhaled deeply, and I held my breath for just a few seconds.  I laughed as I lay there and Dan did, too, as we squeezed each other's hand, both so full of thanks.

Many of Joshua's features and characteristics have stayed the same through all these years (ex. his smile, his humor, his dogged determination) and some have changed (ex. his hair color, his improving communication skills, his ability to control his body). We wonder what kind of man he'll be, and somehow we already know. We still give thanks that we get to be a part of his life, and we look forward to him being always being a part of ours.