I finally find myself with a day of nothing-on-the-schedule, and I am sick, sick, sick. Yuck. (I know, I know...count my blessings that I am sick on a nothing-on-the-schedule day! Still, yuck.)
On a happier note,
Joshua had a birthday!!!!!!
We have had him this many wonderful--yes, quite literally, full of wonder--years:
I got pregnant with Joshua just after having a miscarriage. When I started bleeding again in this second pregnancy, I was absolutely terrified of losing yet another baby. Michael and my brother Jeff gave me a beautiful
priesthood blessing. In it I was told that this baby would come to term and would complete our family. Well, he did and he has!
Initially, all I could hear in that blessing were the words, "Come to term, come to term, come to term..." and I was comforted.
Later, as I watched Evan and Lane bond and brotherize their new baby, I felt and saw our "blended" family blend more completely. And I was comforted.
Then, as it became more and more obvious that there weren't going to be any more babies, I understood yet another way that Joshua has, indeed, completed our family. Heavenly Father knew these things way before I did, and gave me that nice little hint. He also gave me this nice little boy. And I am comforted.
When Joshua was one he put his guardian angels to work (and his mother into a state of cardiac arrest) when he climbed up the metal ladder to the roof of the garage, and proceeded to try and pull himself up to the next roof level where his dad and grandpa (who were supposedly watching the kids) were hanging Christmas lights. I had been downstairs folding laundry when I heard Lane and Evan yelling, "Look at Joshua!" and loud footsteps pounding across the roof above me. My heart still has not stopped pounding when I think of that day.
When Joshua was two he met his best-bud, Hudson, when Shannon and her family moved into the house around the corner from us. Hudson and Joshua have been somewhat inseparable ever since then, and share some special sort of bond that erases time and distance each time they get together. We're sad that they have moved a little ways from us, but still relish every moment with that family!
When Joshua was three he made it quite obvious that he got all the math brains I never had. Standing next to me at the fabric cutting table at Wal-mart, he looked at the yardstick pasted there and said, "Oh, I get it! Numbers go both ways from zero," and told me, with his 3-year-old vocabulary, about negative numbers. It had taken me until college and a hired tutor to grasp the concept of the number line!
When Joshua was four he had to go to the doctor often for two reasons: one was that he had a constantly--and I mean CONSTANTLY--dripping snot nose (at one family gathering Uncle Christofer said, "Look, Joshua's brains are dripping out his nose," to which Aunt Esther replied a moment later, "Don't worry, he just sucked them back in!"). Joshua's pediatrician was concerned about severe allergies and sent us along to an allergist. The allergist told us that Joshua had "Old Man Sinus Syndrome." Personally, I think that title may be something she made up, but whatever. The snot-well has, thankfully, since run dry and now Joshua just has normal Young-Boy boogers (still plenty disgusting in their own rite).
The other reason Joshua had to get checked over more frequently was that he had an inguinal hernia since birth, and the doctors were trying to decide whether or not to perform surgery on it. We all decided to wait, and the hernia, too, has apparently had sufficient time to heal itself.
When Joshua was five he got to stay home with me and have "Mommy-Preschool." Many people told me that I was curbing his education by not putting him in preschool. Oh, well. I did what I felt was right. And, so far, he's still got better brains than me (even if he did recycle some of them through his mouth)!
When Joshua was six he started kindergarten. He was, and still is, extremely shy, and found public school socially excruciating. He's done well, though, socially and academically, and we're proud of his growth and development. His biggest dilemma throughout school has been that he doesn't want to seem different from anyone else, so he hates being in separate reading or math groups, despite his abilities in these areas. (I so know what you're thinking, home-school advocates, and I don't disagree. We're just choosing this way right now.) What he does love, though, is soccer on the playground, soccer at recess, and soccer after school with his buddies. He also
might admit to liking chess-club, math-club, and creative dance with Mrs. Fenn. Just don't push him on whether he likes school choir or not with Mrs. Vance...
When Joshua was seven Michael was the Scout Master for our local Boy Scout troop. This meant (much to big-brother Lane's chagrin) that Joshua was invited to go along on all the scout activities, including their summer High Adventure hike and week-long camp to Brown Duck Lake. Everyone--including Joshua--carried their huge camping packs on their backs the seven miles at an altitude of 11,000 feet in to their campsite, and then back out again. Not wanting Joshua to fall behind while hiking up the trail, Robert, another leader, tied Joshua with a rope to Nick, one of the bigger scouts. Nick and Joshua still share a special bond (no pun intended) from that Herculean effort. Joshua also thinks that the Cub Scouts he's in now is pretty boring...and it probably is after already having spent several years backpacking, ice caving, snow camping, fire building, gun shooting, snow-mobiling, water skiing, and more with the Boy Scout troop!
When Joshua was eight we all took a trip to Mazatlan, Mexico to celebrate our 10-years-as-a-family anniversary. Lane and Evan couldn't get enough of teasing Joshua that he wasn't invited on the trip since he hadn't been part of the family from wedding-day-one like they had been! Brothers! It was a good thing we brought Joshua along, though, to save me from the beach-combing vendors. One time I was pretty excited over the good deal I thought I was getting, having not successfully computed the exchange rate from pesos to dollars. Overhearing the entire exchange, Joshua pulled me aside and said, "Mom, would you
think about this for a minute?! It's going to cost you such-and-such amount of money, and that's NOT a good deal!" What would I do without my little Wall-Street banker?
When Joshua was nine he surpassed all expectations by auditioning for "Savior of the World." This was really hard for him, because Joshua hates, I mean
HATES, to be in front of people. I'm pretty sure that the only reason he agreed to audition was because we could sing together in the try-outs. Sadly, for him, I started crying like a baby with only two words out of my mouth, and Joshua had to sing the rest of the song all by himself. And he did! Now we're doing the show together, with Lane in tow. It's great stuff. They are great kids to spend time with.
Joshua is a great person, and we love getting to know him. We're all so grateful for what he adds each day as he completes each year, and each of us.
