Henry

It has been 2 years since I went to the hospital, and gave birth to Henry. I will never forget that day. I knew going to the hospital that something was wrong with my sweet boy. I knew -- even before he was born -- that Henry had 4 chambers in his kidneys, and he would likely need surgery right after he was born, and another one later on in his childhood. I knew that with Henry, things would be a little different, a little harder. When I first heard of his challenge a voice said to me, very clearly, "It will be hard, but it will be OK."

Now, 2 years later, Henry is full of life, vigor, and happiness. He takes his medicine everyday, to control kidney/bladder infections. We are still awaiting his prognosis on his surgery. I was getting ready to go for his renal ultrasound at the hospital, when Charles stopped breathing on our living room floor. I went to the hospital that day, but not for what was on my calendar. (I will tell the whole story another day. Not yet.)

Henry has been a joy to our family. He is also, obviously, our last baby. That question was still up in the air, but now, well -- that's it for babies around here. It was never really likely we would have another one, since I struggled with a blog clot in my leg with my last pregnancy. As I have recently learned, blood clots in the leg can be very, very, dangerous. (Again, another story, for another day.) 

Having Henry around now is very healing. His cute little face makes it hard not to smile. He also says and does the most precious things. When Henry sees a picture of Jesus he says, "Daddy!" It makes me smile every time … to him Daddy does look a lot like Jesus. And right after saying, "Daddy!" he puts his arms out and says, "Hug?" How precious is that? The first time he did it, yep, I cried. I thought it was just a certain picture of Jesus that he would identify as "Daddy" but I showed him a bunch of different pictures, and he said the same thing, every time.

I do hope that Henry will always remember his Daddy, somehow. The other kids will remember him, and how much they love him -- but Henry is so young. I pray we can do our best to keep Daddy (and Jesus!) firmly planted in his little heart. We have pictures of Charles everywhere in our house now. Henry identifies both clean-shaven Charles as Daddy, and pictures of Jesus as Daddy. Precious, precious, child.

Oh Henry, we love you so much! Happy Birthday!

You know, I thought that surely having a baby with some health issues would be a "good enough" trial to go through to last me awhile, right? One trial at a time…nice and easy does it. But apparently, God has other plans for me. Did you know that on a scale from 1-100, loss of spouse is ranked as the number 1 most stressful thing to endure? Yep, I can testify to that. May God continue keeping me close -- and equal to the task of not only enduring, but enjoying life too.

May I be given the strength, and joyful countenance -- to be the kind of mother that these beautiful children, like Henry, deserve!

For stories about Henry's birth go: HERE and HERE  and HERE. (They are pretty interesting to me now, looking back. My thoughts and feelings back then -- VERY interesting…)