Seven Steps Up: Happy Birthday, dear Joseph!

Yep. Fourteen years and several days ago I was expecting to birth my 6th baby... When Joseph woke up on his birthday I shared the story of how I'd fallen on ice around January 3rd and that all day the 4th I had not felt the baby move, so I drove myself to the hospital to get checked... the children stayed home that evening with their dad. While being monitored for an hour or so that night I was having contractions every 10 minutes. The baby was doing fine, but it was detected that I had very low amniotic fluid... and there was concern about me going home and risks... and it was 65 degrees below zero... So, Joseph was born on January 5th. I left out some details because... well... they just aren't necessary, you know?? I shared his birth story with him and then the two of us enjoyed taking time to reminisce... remembering the year he was a toddler wearing yellow rain boots ALL summer long... he was our little chicken chaser... how a few years later he was a little tennis star at the courts, making the best shots and picking up the sport so naturally... (he got a LOT of attention from the local coaches for a couple of those years!)... the time an adult asked him his name and he said, "I'm Joseph... You know... Joseph from the Bible."

You only sit and recall memories for just so long and then you're ready to do something else...

And our "something else" was the two of us driving over to see Rebekah, Nick and Lily! We met up with them and headed to a hill which had a trail and some really great trees and a rope tree swing. How special it is when you get out of the ordinary and take in nature!

I was much slower when it came to descending... the car and kids looked like toys and I couldn't resist doing a fun shot with the camera:

Next we headed into the local bowling alley to shoot some pool, play some air hockey and grab some snacks. I left my camera in the car, so I have no photos to share. I really appreciated that Nick and Bek wanted to take some time to spend with Joseph and hang out. We dropped Nick and Lily off at their house and kidnapped Bek, bringing her home with us to spend the night. When Scott got in we headed to get some pizza with Shasta, Chris and Jayden joining us. I love taking in these events... pausing to look around and see notice what each of them look like in this one moment of time... watching what each of their characters is like... being thankful for lessons learned and obstacles overcome... taking a deep breath when you realize that so much is yet to come.