bekaboo

Happy 18th birthday Matthew Lane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know the photos are not the best, and they didn't scan in too well since a certain soon-to-be-18-year-old did them and didn't want to redo them. :) :) :) But I wanted to post a few photos tonight. I want to share the memories of Matthew's birth-day another day soon. It went so differently than we envisioned it at the time, and he almost didn't survive, but thanks to God, he is still here. The hospital he was airlifted to told us at discharge that we'd have to keep a close eye on him as he would be "puny, sickly and have a lot of health problems." I'll let you judge for yourself how that turned out below. :)

This is Matthew at about 2 weeks. We went back to the hospital he was born at to get his newborn photos. All our babies wore that outfit at discharge- a St. Louis Blues t-shirt we got when I was pregnant the 1st time and a knitted sweater that was made by Rob's grandma.

These two photos are my favorites of Matthew!

And now, my 6'5" "puny" boy!

Thank you Father for being with us that day 18 years ago. For keeping me safe as I was in labor all day long & as I delivered. For keeping Matthew safe through delivery and in those hours immediately afterwards when he was so in danger and we didn't know how bad it was yet, for the hospital that took him, for the chopper team that took care of him in flight and helped him get to St. Louis, for all those that cared for my baby and helped him when he was so very sick. Thank you for my Pop who went over and sat with him, talked to him, told him about his family, took photos of him for me, and let him know he was loved while I was still in the hospital or home with the other two babies. For being with us in that very bleak, stressful time when we had two little ones under 2, one baby in NICU, and a parent in ICU in critical condition. What an awful time that was for Rob & I!

Thank you Father for getting to bring my baby home (oh, how I remember all those other families up there with babies so much sicker than mine, many of whom never came home). And God, thank you so very, very much for EVERY single day of the past 18 years of our lives. Thank you for the blessing of being a mom and for every trial, hard time, good time, in-between-time and everything else. Thank you God!