Twelve years old!

 My baby turned twelve years old this morning! I'm so thankful for the twelve years we have been able to spend with Oliver so far. Twelve months from today I'll be the mom of three teenagers! Every life is a miracle. We're not always aware of all the times our lives have been spared, but in Oliver's case we're aware of some of those instances. The first that comes to mind is in May 2012. The staff at the hospital wanted to do an emergency c-section to save my life, which would have ended his life because he wasn't quite far enough along to be considered viable. I begged them not to, and I prayed fervently that God would stop the bleeding and spare his life. Thankfully, God answered those prayers. The day after he was born, the NICU staff informed me that the previous day they weren't that optimistic that he would live. There have been other scary moments since then, but thankfully the Lord brought him through those hard times and enabled him to flourish.

Oliver's birthday party took place two weeks ago because I thought it would be special if four of his cousins could attend. For the past eleven months we had planned to celebrate Oliver's birthday on Long Island with Aunt Janet. However, Hurricane Debby altered those plans. Considering Aunt Janet currently lives in Reno, we had reservations for four nights at a Holiday Inn, so it seemed challenging to come up with alternative plans if it was raining most of the time we were out there. We scratched the plans (which included visiting five NPS sites, the private beach, and Bronx Zoo), and made some new plans. We said Oliver could choose where we went to dinner tonight. He chose Texas Roadhouse. We'll pick up donuts today at Dunkin for breakfast tomorrow. I got a DVD from the library of a movie he's been wanting to see for a few months, and Julianna and Nathaniel are going to spend about 7 hours with us tomorrow while their mother is at work. Oliver had opened some birthday presents on the day of his party, and he opened one from Pop Pop last Friday. This morning, he opened the gifts from us, which included two puzzles, three books, one Lego set, a pair of wireless headphones, some Pokémon cards, and a pogo stick. Next year, Lord willing, we will be celebrating his birthday in Hawaii! 

I usually include a list of descriptions on each child's birthday, but when I looked at his list from his half-birthday in February, everything I listed there is still true. When we go to sit-down restaurants, Ian and Oliver still order off the children's menu, but we're making an exception tonight for Oliver because he wants to eat seafood, and there isn't any seafood on the kids' menu at Texas Roadhouse. I love Oliver so much. Of my three kids, he's the one who tells me he loves me the most often, and he also often writes a love message to me on the sermon outline at church on Sunday mornings. He repeated fourth grade so he *could* have already been in the youth group for a year, but as of May he's been attending the youth group instead of Kidzway on Sunday mornings, and next month he'll begin attending Bible quizzing and youth group on Wednesday nights. Memorizing is a challenge for him, so I've been giving him a head start and have already been working with him on memorizing verses from Luke for Bible quizzing. He had five lines in the musical last week, and although he didn't speak loudly enough, he did remember his lines! He will be taking art and chorus at Meadowbrook Christian School for the first time in his life this school year, which means he can also be in the spring musical. Middle school here we come!