8 yr old miracle:)

Today is Sam's 8 year old birthday! My mind goes back to the day he was born, after a short eventful pregnancy. Our doctor felt he needed to be delivered although he wasn't quite 32 weeks because the amniotic fluid was low & he was at risk of lying on his cord & killing himself. Since he was breech, they scheduled me for a c-section and gave me a few steroid shots to help his lung develop. So I laid there and watched him be born (don't' worry the only thing I was looking at was his cute butt popping out!) Let me tell you a planned c-section is the way to go! so easy, I was up in no time and not really too uncomfortable. Much easier than my "natural birth" with our first son!


Of course most of you have read the story about how I noticed his eyes the next morning & had to fight to get medical attention for them although he was in the NICU! (and no I wasn't very nice but unfortunately right!) I knew he was blind the first time I looked into his eyes....

We were devastated! Who thinks about having a blind child???? That wasn't on my list of worries at all!!! The emotions we felt were overwhelming....

But through it all, somehow the peace of God sustained us, I can't explain it but when I look back on those days, it's not with a sense of sorrow, it's with a feeling of comfort... I determined while he was in the hospital I was NOT going to get bitter about the hand that life dealt us and I was going to trust God!

We adored him so much, were at the hospital all day every day & were so glad to bring him home although he came home with machines! We began the (now over 40 surgeries & procedures) that have given him a measure of sight in one eye. And we just loved him. Honestly because he was blind, it just made him that much more precious to us.

So now EIGHT years later, we have this wonderful precious little boy (and yes he is little- the size of a 2 1/2 yr old but chunky) that we still adore. He has taken us on some real adventures physically, spiritually & emotionally. We've met people that we would have never met , if we didn't have Sam! We've experienced many things & plenty of trips (NY doctor trips/vacations) that we would have never experienced if we didn't' have Sam. Spiritually having him, has taken us to a place of surrender that we've probably would never have gone on our own... I'm amazed by families who adopt children with special needs who do not have their own special (SN) child! I personally would have never had the guts otherwise...but having Sam takes the fear out and shows us the joy that is there in a life that may not be "perfect' in the eyes of the world but is in God's eyes and our eyes' too!

So just by his life, it encouraged us to adopt Shad! And now we are adopting two more children with similar special needs as Sam. We read their diagnosis and it reads as Sam's would probably if he were in their situation. It's rather bleak, they are blind with cognitive delays....but so is Sam and he is the light of my life:) We feel privileged that God would allow us to have a son like Sam. I know that may seem hard for some people to understand, I probably wouldn't have understood it 10 years ago...but it is so true! Having Sam has shown us what is truly important in life and what's not... Isn't' that a wonderful thing? So what is important PEOPLE! Not things or degrees or titles but people! Guess what? A person is important even if they don't have a 150 IQ score...Sam's score is extremely low and he has had every advantage a child with disabilities could have & it's not really helped much but that so does NOT matter!!! He matters, his heart, his love...I wish I could fully share my heart but it is so hard to put it in words. I just love my baby and love having him in my life:) There are days when the thought just washes over me, how blessed I truly am....