7 years old!

November 8, 2004 this little boy was born...

when we met him he was perfect! 

We never could have anticipated the adventures that were ahead..

and memories,

comfort,

family,

celebration,

treasured moments,

snuggles,

special time,

friends,

fun,

peace,

a little mischief,

smiles,

joy,

endurance,

LOVE!

Thank you Samuel for giving us all of these things! 

God made you PERFECT and we love you so much!

Happy Birthday precious boy!

Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD,

 “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

time together





Samuel has been doing much better the last few days

 and so we decided to use some of the free tickets available to us from

Give Kids the World (Samuel's Make A Wish Trip) before they expired!

We went to Stone Mountain, Georgia first!

It was thrilling to share this special place with the kids, especially the laser show!



Samuel had some special time in the barn where he finally broke out his smile!

His wonderful Aunt "Melly" took him down the slide (which is very hard since he has gotten so big) and after they went down he was so happy!  We tried to reinact it for the video...

So precious!!!

Melly is so sweet with Samuel, truly a treasure to us!

Me and Samuel on the train!

Also, part of my wonderful family came with us for the day and after doing the fun ropes course, riding the train and seeing Yogi bear in 4-D we went to save our spot for the laser show for over 2 hours!

 My family is a HUGE blessing to me and our family and I am so happy to share this time with them!!



My dear Mama and me





Samuel and Micah looking at something together
Wonderful memories!!



Next we were able to go to the Georgia Aquarium!



The whale shark was right in front of them so I got this awesome picture!



Another cool picture with the beluga whale!

Tim took special time with Samuel to make sure he could see everything and enjoy it! 

 Such a sweet Daddy!

I am thankful for these times to enjoy one another and God's creation!

Thankful

"Measuring Time"

"Measuring Time"

"Time is not measured by clocks but by moments"

I love Mary Engelbrite, she has the best quotes and prints.  Her stuff makes me happy!  Her initials are also the same as my name M.E.!  So I can get her products and pretend it was printed with ME in mind :)
This is a poster my Mama bought for me years ago and I finally got the bright idea to put it in a frame in our school room.  Every day I pass it it makes me smile.
Of course, the main reason I love it is because of the child in the wheelchair.  It makes me so happy to have every moment with my sweet Samuel and our family.

So we all started school last week 

Micah has the blessing of going to preschool and going to "Grammy's" class (my Mama)!  He loves school and to be busy so it is a huge help to me!  Also, my sweet sister Melody is the teachers aide, so he gets to be in her care, also.  What more could I ask for for my little boy??!!  peaceful "moments" for our school time :)


I have the joy and priviledge of homeschooling our other 3 children!  Every "moment" is not always easy and smooth, but who said it would be?  I love teaching my children and being with them.  I am learning SO MUCH! 
Here is Annaleigh writing our history sentence on the board (at homeschool).

Gracie working on her math.

Another part of our school room that brightens my day.  A beautiful painting and verse from my sweet friend, Annette.  She painted it after my second miscarriage, so these flowers would never die and I would have Psalm 23:6 nearby. Another "moment" sadness has brought joy.  Brings me joy everyday!

Samuel and I are working on his reading. 

Precious "moments" 

Annaleigh at our little writing nook.

Gracie enjoying her new lap desk.

Samuel loves doing any activities!  Sister "moments"

Love this one too! 

Praying for "moments" spent well each day.

snuggles

I am sitting here thinking about how much I have to do today, as probably most of you are!  School is about to start back and since I homeschool, I have to get the school stuff organized!  Well...I make a huge mess getting to the finishing product.  So I have been putting it off.  Today I started and have neatly organized bookshelves, but still have piles of old books and anything else that was in the bookshelves to figure out what to do with! 

But, it's hard to get anything done around here because

I just want to sit and snuggle with this fellow all day :) 

Look at that precious face!!!!

I am so thankful Samuel is having a great week!  His breathing has even gotten much clearer since his J tube placement!!  This is a huge praise, since his biggest risk is the aspiration pneumonia!!

Thankful for all the prayers!

 

(Friday, playing a game together)

Let's just stop and snuggle when we need to!

smiles

When Samuel was born, he was perfect.  He weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz.  dark hair, rosy cheeks, adorable!  We were all in love the moment we met him!  He was doing good, just had reflux and was very irritable.  He gave out very limited smiles.

 I thought, he must just have a serious kind of personality.  Gracie and Annaleigh smiled all of the time, Gracie was even nicknamed "smiley", by a friend.  Whenever I wanted a picture of Samuel smiling I would work so hard to get it!  It might take an hour and 200 pictures, but I was determined!

 Well, I did not always get my smiling picture.  When he was almost 6 months old we realized there was more going on with his little body.  He could not control his movements, so it was hard for him to even smile.

(finally a quick grin!!!!)

(I remember this day, he got smiley when Tim came home and played with him and I took about 50 pictures)

(I usually just save the good one, but here is an example...I took about 200 literally)

This was so hard!  All I wanted, needed and desired from my sweet baby was a smile.  I guess that would let me know he was ok, not hurting, content.  

We would get nothing for days....but then it would come!  Oh, what rejoicing we had.  It was like the world would stop and we would soak it in.  It was like rain in the desert.  I would grab my camera and start snapping.  Sometime I would catch it, but mostly not.  Tim bought me a camera that I could hold down the button and it would just start snapping.  I would get one out of 100...literally.  But, that one is like gold!

Needless to say, God used my special child to teach me to be thankful for the smallest of things.  A smile, a giggle, a high five...these are things that are very special.  Samuel went through months with no smiles and then there would be a season of sweet grins.  And we treasure each one.

So be thankful for those sweet smiles that are given to you.  If their smiles were not there I know we would miss them.!