Scene I walked into the eve of Abbie's birthday after Mike had decided to give her her 1st bite of chocolate syrup leftover from his ice cream sundae!
Her "private party" with Mommy and Daddy. The donut was specially chosen by Mommy who loves icing and sprinkles!
Homemade butterfly cake and icing made by Mommy and Daddy
Abbie and her youngest cousin, Hallie, trying to see who's tallest!
Family picture on Abbie's big day!
1st bite of cake!
Think she liked the icing best??!!
Abbie preferred watching the other kids pull the pinata ribbons than doing it herself! This is her oldest cousin Maggie taking a turn.
She thought wearing the pinata was MUCH more fun than pulling the ribbon!
I never dreamed that Abbie turning 1 year old would be so emotional for me! Of course it's a combo of happy, joyful, thankful, reminisent, and sad emotions. This first year of life with her as part of our family has flown by and God has enriched and blessed Mike and I's life beyond imagination and description through the gift of her. I frantically finished her baby book, or at least up to 1 year, the day before her party and it was amazing to look through the ridiculously large number of pictures taken of her, between us and my Dad, and see how drastically she's changed since the day we met her for the 1st time. God's faithfulness has truly poured out over her and us as a family since we found out July 11, 2008 that she was on her way!
Don't know if I ever shared that crazy story but I'll give you a quick synopsis. I'd been sick for a couple weeks and had some dehydration problems resulting in low blood pressure issues and started feeling really weak one morning as I was working. A co-worker took my blood pressure and it was really low so since I worked in a hospital at the time my boss took me to the ER to be checked. They started and IV of fluids and in that process at one point the doctor said to me "guess what you'll be doing in 9 months?!" I was shocked, beyond excited, and totally overwhelmed! God had taken care of Abbie and protected her through me being sick.
My pregnancy went well until about 34 weeks when I went into pre-term labor one day at work. Instead of heading home that afternoon, I headed up to the maternity floor! My labor continued to progress and the doctors finally told us they just couldn't stop it as the medicines they'd given me to stop it were only increasing the strength and frequency of my contractions! They stopped the medicine, we kept praying for a miracle that God would stop the labor, and we just waited to see if Abbie was going to make her debut! Once the medicines stopped, the impossible happened, my labor stopped! So the next morning they sent me home on bedrest for the next 3 weeks until it was safe for Abbie to come. Of course, ironically, I ended up being induced at the end! Abbie had a mind of her own from the very beginning but she was finally here in our arms safe and sound!
God faithfully took Abbie and I through labor and though small, she was totally healthy and vibrant with life! One scare we had when she was about 3 months old was that one night Mike was coming down the stairs of our old house and his foot missed a step and he sat right down on his bottom and Abbie began to roll out of his arms but he caught her at just the last minute by her feet! That was a night we'd both like to forget but God totally protected her and she was hurt at all! I stayed up with her all night that night to watch her and make sure she was ok. What a scare but God had protected her with His mighty hand! No more scares like that since then thankfully and we've had an amazing journey of life with Abbie as parents where God's shown us in so many ways how He loves us through this opportunity of being her parents. Daily He reminds me of His patience with me, childlike faith that He desires from us, and that in my own power I can't be the mom He desires me to be to point Abbie toward Him but that He must do that job through me in His strength, not mine.
Mike, Abbie, and I celebrated her birthday February 25th, with a personal iced, sprinkle donut with a "1" candle for her and singing Happy Birthday to her to practice for her party on Saturday the 27th. Abbie LOVED being sung to and tore into that donut after warming up to it for just a minute! Saturday she loved her big party too with family and friends. She didn't seemed overwhelmed by all the people at all. Mike and I made a homemade butterfly cake to go along with the garden party theme. She loved being sung Happy Birthday to, once again, and enjoyed the icing of her little cake. The kids all seemed to have fun and the weather was nice so we got to go outside for the cupcake pinata game. Abbie wasn't amused at all about pulling the first ribbon from the pinata with Daddy's help but seemed to like watching all the other kids do it and then loved when Daddy put the empty pinata on her head at the end! We are so blessed to be surrounded by so much family and friends to celebrate Abbie's 1st year of life!
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