Happy 1st Birthday, Grace!

Sweet Gracie B.,

i only have a few minutes to write this before your official birthday will be over. it has been a good day. very laid back and i so enjoyed snuggling and playing with you. your birthday party was so fun last night and it was a true delight to see your expression when everyone sang to you. you soaked it right up and boy did you dig into your cake! too cute!

i love your age and your sweet, sweet spirit. you love to play peek-a-boo and to speed-crawl away from me when i try to change your diaper. you love your big sister and so much want to play with her at all times. you are cruising everywhere and are getting braver and braver. i know you will be walking soon. you love bath time and for some reason you have a strong affinity for the toilet bowl too so i have to be careful!

tonight when we were praying before dinner. i thanked God again for the miracle of your sweet life. tears pricked my eyes as i remembered this day last year. when you were born, but your little lungs weren't ready yet. i wanted so badly to hold you and nurse you. i was convinced that i could make you all better by holding you close. i couldn't and the next morning you were whisked away on an airplane to arkansas children's hospital three hours away from me. my heart was broken. when we first got to see you again that evening, your daddy and i cried and cried. it hurt so much to see with all the tubes and struggling to breathe. our Father was so near to us during that time. He held us close and gave us faith and peace and hope that you would be ok. it was during this time that we dubbed you, gracie b. since that is what you went by in the nicu. the name stuck and you will always be our sweet gracie b! your sweet doctor all of your nurses liked you so much. your only male nurse told me that he wanted a baby just like you one day. your uncle jeremiah is prone to say that too. :)

grace, you are such a blessing and i am so thankful to God chose to place you in our family. i know that your life is a miracle and a gift. this was confirmed to me even recently. me and daddy and sophie love you so very much as well as all your extended family. all of your grandparents are pretty sweet on you!

soon you will have a new cousin, mr. ike. you will be almost exactly one year older than him (i think, come on ike! we want to meet you!) and you'll have someone littler, some one to boss. :)

i love you sweet grace adeline. as adeline means, you are "under God's guidance" and i am so blessed to be your momma.

lets have an awesome second year! :)

love, mom

ps- now would be a great time to start sleeping through the night. don't you think? :)