EIGHT IS GREAT

Today is my oldest son's eighth birthday. As I wrote his card out last night, I got so emotional about it. I actually wept. Time really does go by way too fast. It made me reflect--have I done enough? Have I wasted so much time. Am I too hard on him? Even though I have had two baby boys after him, I still feel like he is my little baby and he was just born. All of a sudden, he's eight! Where did the time go? His first adventures were also mine since I was a brand new mom, so completely unaware of the true responsibilites that were ahead of me. I do remember the night he was born, I asked my husband, "are you going to sleep?" Because I thought one of us should stay awake all night and make sure the baby keeps breathing. This unbelievable sense of needing to protect him came over me. The next 5 weeks of sleep deprivation as he thought day was night and night was day had me thinking I surely would go crazy. During his seventh week, I woke up and had this amazing realization that I loved this little guy, that I was in love with him. It really did take me that long to feel a real bonding--all I knew up until then was meeting his needs. I also had a traumatic experience with his birth, so I think it took me a while to make it through that emotionally. Anyway.....enough about me for goodness sake!

He's such a beautiful person with an incredibly tender demeanor. His father and I love his sense of humor. We can just sit and chat with him as though he were our age and we're even more interested than is! I love his laugh and the way his eyes twinkle when he is happy (just like his dad.) He is so passionate about reading that it baffles me. We often have to make him put a book down just to go to bed hours after bedtime! And, it isn't uncommon to find him with bookmarks in 2-4 different books that he is reading simultaneously. Before he was two, he was reading. Not full words, but letters. I'll never forget the day he walked up to me and said "Mama, W437GTYK571." Startled, I paused for a second and said "What did you just say?" I then looked around thinking "am I on candid camera or something." He repeated it. "W437..." and as he did, I realized that the list of numbers was on a packing sticker from a new delivery we got...it was on his forehead! The boy had read it and memorized it and my husband stuck it to his forehead with the instructions, "Go tell Mama!" The next few days, he still remembered it. It boggled my mind, but we had a lot of fun with things like that. We always remind him that God gave him a good brain and he must be thankful for it, not show it off. My hope is that he uses it for God's glory...I pray he lives out a life sharing God's Word and living it. He certainly won't have any trouble reading or remembering it!

I remember when he was just maybe four and I was explaining salvation again to him. When I got to the part about Jesus had to take all of sins on his body, he said so sweetly, "Did it hurt?" Oh my goodness, the tenderness that was on his lips. "Yes, honey, it really did hurt him..."

I am just so thankful for my eight-year-old baby boy! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!