Seventeen Years Ago

My Oldest - born today, 17 years ago! I was probably the greenest mom you ever might've met. At my baby shower, I mistook the baby bathtub for a baby carrier. The other, experienced moms just took another bite of their hanky-pankies and looked at each other in an "oh, my" sort of way. And they were right. What a shock that they let us drive away from the hospital, all alone, with this little, fragile person! We made lots of little oops-es with him along the way, and since he's firstborn, we're STILL making

oops-es as we muck through parenting him as he approaches adulthood. The lot of the firstborn is certainly challenging!

What a handsome and thoughtful baby, though - nicely round c-section head. Very little time in the tunnel for him before he had to be yanked out from the other direction. Poor, poor baby!

We took rolls and rolls of photos in the hospital as we got to sit up and play with our new babe most of the night. Learning to breastfeed took up most of those long hours. Neither my husband or I will ever forget the lactation consultant's embarrassingly odd coaching, "Make a sandwich!" Husband promptly went out to re-park the car. I wished I could disappear, too.

Seventeen years ago today!

Father, thank you for gifting us with this son seventeen years ago today! Please continue to guide and grow him, more and more into the image of your Dear Son!