Day 3-Wednesday

Andy really really wanted to see some lighthouses this trip. So on day 3 we went out in search of Cape Henry. Cape Henry is actually the site of The First Landing or where the Susan Constant, The Godspeed and The Discovery ships actually made their first landing. The Virginia Colony (remember them?) specifically instructed the settler's not to set this site up as their settlement because they were concerned that the oceanfront property would give enemy Navies too great of access to the settler's. So the settler's moved on and settled on the James River instead. Just to give you an idea it would take us approximately 90 minutes to travel from Jamestown to Cape Henry in our car. So they ended up moving quite a bit aways from their first landing spot.

The best part of this trip for the boys was that Cape Henry now sits inside Ft. Story. A real live Army Base!! The kids thought it was great fun when Mom and Dad had to exit the car and stand 25 yards away while the car was searched. And when I say searched I mean every crevice and compartment were gone through!! Luckily we passed and Isaac got to see a real live base!! Talk about excited!!

Andy and I joked that it must be a hardship tour to serve on an oceanfront base. The housing was certainly better than any base housing we ever got to live in. Cute little beach bungalows painted in bright colors!! Yup must suck to be stationed there:)

There was a cute little boardwalk that took us straight to the beach. You couldn't actually swim at this beach though. There were signs posted everywhere about the rough current and the beach itself was littered with debris...like dead crabs!! EVERYWHERE!!

This is where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. It was a very very beautiful spot. You could see dolphins swimming and Navy boats in the distance.The MP's showed up and gave Asher a real treat! He got to turn on the lights and everything. They were super duper nice!!Maia is ready to get off that hot sand but she will still give a fake smile for the camera:)

Off to see the lighthouses. This first one was all gated off and we really couldn't get very close to it at all.

This photo was taken from the very top of the Old Cape Henry Lighthouse. It was built in 1879. This one here is the Old Cape Henry Lighthouse. This is the very first United States Government commissioned structure. It was built in 1792. It is 191 very steep steps to the top of the lighthouse!! All around an iron curving narrow staircase. Word to the wise: Don't let your 7 year old wear flip flops when climbing to the top. Thankfully the nice people below us retrieved them--twice! It's hotter than hot at the top of this thing. There is no ventilation up there. This may have been better to see in the Fall. But the view was gorgeous and the historical nature of the building made it worth it. Even if we were drenched and dripping in sweat by the time we came back down:) Good thing we were headed to the beach for the day!!

Here is a picture that shows what the base is used for today. Amphibious vehicles!! Asher was in love with this...it's a Fire Rescue Vehicle!!

I'm sad to say I didn't get anymore pictures the rest of the day:( We headed for the beach and it was just not conducive to having my camera out. Which really stinks because I was looking forward to getting some fantastic beach pictures.

Isaac loved the beach. He ventured out pretty far and loved it when the waves came crashing over his head. I don't think I have heard him laugh so much in a long long time.

Andy really surprised himself because he thought he would hate the beach but he loved it. We had fun playing in the waves together and body surfing. It was fun to see him so relaxed and playful!

Maia really liked the beach a lot. She would not venture out very far at all but she loved the waves and sand. She did keep floating farther and farther out to the left of us. I can't tell you how many times we had to go round her up.

Asher hated the beach:( He was scared to death of the waves and wouldn't go anywhere near them. For a long time he was content to play in the sand but after awhile he had sand stuck to every surface of his body. Eventually he got it in his eyes because he wouldn't let us walk him to the water to rinse him off periodically. In the end we caused quite the scene when he had a huge screaming hysterical fit because we forced him to rinse off at the edge of the ocean!! I'm sure the people camped out around us were thrilled with noise.

Of course they probably never noticed the noise actually because Virginia Beach has got to be the noisiest beach I've ever been to!! Much to my kids delight there was constant activity over the water...fighter jets, chinooks and AWAKS galore!! The soldiers in the chinooks were sitting with their legs dangling out of the doors and waving at us!! Not to mention all the Navy ships in the distance blowing their horns!!

All in all it was a great day!! I didn't love Virginia Beach as I've been to much better beaches but it served it's purpose for us this trip. Next time we head to the beach it'll be one not quite so busy. Or maybe one with a better boardwalk!!

After we thoroughly exhausted ourselves we headed back to our hotel. We got stuck in some nasty traffic and it ended up being a very looooong ride back. Which wasn't a whole lot of fun because we were freezing from being soaking wet and we had sand some places where sand just doesn't belong!! Some of us may have even covered up with wet towels and fallen asleep on the return trip. I will learn from mistakes and pack better for our next trip :)

After some very quick showers we headed out to find a very late dinner. Then we quickly returned to our room and passed out from exhaustion!! It was a very good day indeed :)

Day 2--Tuesday

Day 2 started out kinda slow. We slept in just a bit and then went grocery shopping. Well Andy went grocery shopping and I stayed at the hotel with the kids. Andy was supposed to pick up just a few breakfast things but he came back with enough stuff to stock our mini fridge. Which was good thinking because it helped us save money in the long run!

The kids were going out of their little minds with wanting to get into the pool. So after a quick breakfast we all headed down. It was so nice!!! Indoor and heated with a nice hot tub off to the side. And the bonus is we were the only ones there. The first part of the week the hotel was nice and quiet. There were a ton of military men in uniform but other than that we felt pretty isolated. The boys loved getting to talk to the Army men so it was a definite plus for them!!

After a nice swim and some quick showers we headed out to Williamsburg. The kids were not happy and complained the whole time that they wanted to head back to the beach. Maia was hot and tired and she let us know in her best whiny voice ever!! Asher just kinda went with the flow. I really let the kids attitudes get to me. I wanted them to enjoy everything as much as I was. I had worked so hard planning a vacation that I thought had something for all of us in it. I think in the end the kids did end up enjoying Williamsburg but they just didn't want to let us know!!

We only had a few short hours to explore Williamsburg since we got such a late start but we did see a lot!! We spent most of our time at the farm portion. This is a fairly new edition to Colonial Williamsburg and depicts how the majority of the town actually lived. There were about 1800 residents in Williamsburg at the time and most of those residents weren't part of the wealthy elite or gentry who lived in town. Most lived on farms like this one.

Here my boys are learning to saw logs. They did this from sun up to sun down!! Talk about hard work! Notice the cool 2 man system.

Lots of these farmers did have slaves. Most of the farmers were poor and had a hard time making ends meet. They worked right alongside their slaves in lots of instances to get the farm work done. If the farmer happened to do well financially they were still not accepted into the elite gentry society of town. In fact, one of the farmers could possibly make more money than someone of the gentry class but still be considered beneath them. There was a lot of I'm better than you attitudes going on at this time. We learned that there were black farmers at this time that also had slaves of their own. I did not know this and it frankly stunned me!! Did anybody else learn this in school? We also learned lots of neat African American customs and where they originated from. Like Okra is straight from Africa not the South. It was found to grow well in the South because of the climate and it brought comfort and familiarity to the Africans so they started growing it. Africans were beading shells into their hair as a sign of wealth and status. Some of the Africans were from wealthy prominent tribes in Africa and came from more money than their owners could ever hope to possess. The wealthy white gentry class wanted the more unique Africans as their house slaves because it showed off their own status to their friends. So the Africans with many shells beaded into their hair or bones and plates in their noses or mouths or the big gigantic holes in their ears (like is popular now) were more likely to be assigned work in the house where they would be put on display as a sign of their owners wealth and status. I could go on and on I tell ya!!

Here is Asher grinding some corn inside the slave quartersI also thought it was interesting that fireplaces were made to be temporary structures. Today we worry about IF our house catches on fire. Back then they worried about WHEN it would catch on fire. The fireplaces were built so that when they caught fire a few ropes thrown around the top and a little manpower would actually pull the whole chimney away from the building structure...thus hopefully saving their house from burning to the ground. That is also the reason they built kitchens as completely seperate buildings from the main living quarters.

Isn't he cute? He is standing by the barrier that was meant to keep people out of the town's magazine. The magazine is where all the town's arms and ammo were kept.Here is an eager Isaac leading the pack of us inside the magazine.Isaac was in Heaven checking out all these weaponsI liked the drums!The boys were totally engrossed and had lots of questions. I couldn't tell you the answers now for the life of me!! Guess I didn't find this part fascinating!!

The town was closing up about this time so we headed out and looked for food. Even the the Colonial portion of the town was closing down the town itself was still hopping. There were lots and lots of shops and neat little diners to explore. We were looking for cheap so we chose an authentic 50's diner. It was fun to sit up at a bar and the limeades were to die for!! We also explored a couple of little shops and found some fun candy treats.

It was a long day and a bit chaotic but in the end it was all good. Andy and I had a long talk at the end of the night. We planned out the next day a bit better and we were determined to get an early start. We also talked about being in charge. I was so determined that everyone have a great time that I was letting the kids rule the show. And then I was upset when they would complain or whine. No matter how much we gave them their own way they were never satisfied. In the end we told the kids that mommy and daddy were on vacation and that they were lucky we brought them along for the ride. We were back in control and things ran much more smoothly!!

A couple of FYI's.....if you feel that you should bring your stroller along on a trip and your husband doesn't feel it's necessary because your car is already packed....find a way to be sneaky and pack it in there when he is not looking!! I knew I should have done this but I didn't. In the end your husband and his shoulders will thank you if you take this advice. Trust me....by the end of the trip we were thinking of picking up a cheap stroller. Even though Asher doesn't use his anymore it would've been invaluable on this trip!!

If you are going to Colonial Williamsburg and you don't like your feet to get dusty and dirty then DON'T wear flip flops. I was completely grossed out by all the sandy dirt all over my little piggies!! That is like nails on a chalkboard to me!!

Day 1 Monday

I thought we would sleep in late this first day considering how long the day before had been but we were all up bright and early ready to start our vacation fun. The kids had checked out the hotel pool the night before and were pretty mad that we weren't going swimming first thing that morning. I'll admit that the pool was very tempting. It was indoor with a waterfall flowing down into it. And the hot tub wasn't such a bad thing either! Our morning wasn't starting off the best. We were all tired and hungry and the kids were pretty upset that they weren't getting their own way!!

Andy decided that we all needed a big breakfast to get us going. We found a Cracker Barrel down the road and made our game plan.

First stop was Jamestown. The very first permanent settlement in the States. In 1607 the Susan Constant, the Godspeed and the Discovery brought settlers over from England. The settlers were funded by the "Virginia Company" a group of London investors and Royalty that were looking to make money off of the new land.

Here are replicas of the three boats. If you ask Asher he will tell you that this right here was his favorite part of the trip. In the top photo we were aboard the Susan Constant looking at the Discovery(middle) and the Godspeed. The kids posing with an anchor.One of the "settler's" aboard the Discovery showing us some ammunition used on the boats. The Settlers were very worried that Spain or France would invade them. Interesting tidbit....musket balls were made out of pure lead!! Settler's often sucked on them or stored them in their mouths while they were loading their muskets!! My kids were amazed by this because they of course know the dangers of lead, after all the toy recalls of the past year. It could be why the average life span back then was 40 years old!!

Andy skipped ahead past the Powhatan homes and the kids were pretty upset about it. I promised them that we would see them later but they didn't believe me. Maia was especially whiny at this point. She was hot and tired and all she wanted to do was hit the hotel pool. I must admit I was getting very irritated right about now. I was trying my best to make everyone happy and was getting NOWHERE.

We then moved ahead and had a very nice conversation with a Powhatan girl. Isaac spotted a barrel and couldn't seem to help himself from removing the lid. What he found were a bunch of stinky dried fish!! Seriously these fish had been in this barrel since 2 Thanksgivings ago. Apparently dried fish has a very long shelf life. I swear to you Isaac would've eaten it if we would've let him. The kid will puke if he even so much as smells fruity gum or applesauce or sees a crumb of food on someone else's face...but he'll be more than happy to scarf down some 2 year old fish!!

Our next stop was to talk to one of the Jamestown Lady's. She was a wealth of information!! I could have sat and talked to her all. day. long. The Jamestown Settler's tried many many different ways of making money before they were successful. They failed many many times but they ALWAYS got back up and tried again. The pressure from their sponsors was growing and they needed to come up with a money maker for the colony. The Powhatan's were growing tobacco for their own personal use. The climate was ideal for growing tobacco but the tobacco that the Powhatan's were growing was too bitter for the Londoner's taste. John Rolfe, a prominent planter, was the one who came up with the tobacco crop that ended up keeping Jamestown afloat. Eventually the tobacco became such a cash crop that the settlers were neglecting the food crops they needed for survival and tending mainly the tobacco. Tobacco crops are hard work. There are green worms that need picked off of the underside of the leaves. The settlers needed workers to tend their growing fields and this was the start of indentured servants. The servants would sign 7 years of their life away for passage to Jamestown. There were black men and there were white men. They ALL signed a contract for 7 years. Some men tried to run away from their duties and shirk the contract. If a man was caught trying to run away he stood trial. White men ended up with several more years tacked onto their original contract. Black men, on the other hand, ended up serving a lifetime sentence of servitude. Thus slavery was born into the colony.

Tobacco drying in one of the Fort James structures.

Another one of the settlers jobs was to try and convert the Powhatans to Christianity. The King felt that if the Indians were to become Christians they would be more likely to give up their lands and come under the King's control. The settlers weren't very successful in this endeavour. Not many of the Indians converted at all. And on top of that the relationship between the neighbors wasn't very friendly at all. But Pocohontas, the daughter of a Powhatan Chief, did convert to Christianity. And actually married John Rolfe the prominent planter who came up with the tobacco crops!!!! Oh My Goodness stop me now!!! I could talk about this stuff all day!! I love history!!

Maia was extremely grouchy so we went inside the museum to try and appease her. Inside was fantastic!! it was laid out in a wonderful timeline fashion with gorgeous artifacts and displays. I wish I could give you a glimpse but we weren't allowed to photograph inside the building. After getting partway through the museum the kids were dying of starvation!! Since I would never let my kids perish on the floor in front of happy vacationers we decided to leave and feed our offspring. We could have stayed and eaten in their cafe but no way in heck was I gonna spend 7 bucks on a hot dog!! I was NOT happy to be leaving but off we went. We will be back Jamestown!!

Andy had visions of eating seafood on a boardwalk so I dug out the AAA guide that my Aunt had gotten for us. Unbeknownst to the kids I had packed up their swimsuits...just in case. We didn't tell them but we were headed to the beach for a late afternoon swim.

We had the very best seafood I have ever had in my life!!!! The kids whined and complained the whole time. Andy got irritated. I was starting to get mad. They gave the kids styrofoam cups. Which normally wouldn't be a problem. But on this night Asher was sitting beside me instead of across from me. Meaning I wasn't staring directly at him. So I didn't see him force his fork all the way into the styrofoam and clear through to the other side. Talk about a mess!!! But we couldn't help but laugh and it broke all the tension of earlier.

Off to the beach!! There was no place for any of us to change clothes. I had all the kids duck down and change in the car but that wasn't exactly gonna work for Andy and me!! The kids were on their own in the water. The beach didn't turn out how I expected it to at all!! Isaac LOVED it. I thought he would hate it. Maia really liked it a lot. I thought she would LOVE it. And Asher? Well Asher HATED it. He thought those waves were out to get him and he wouldn't go near them to save his life.

On the first visit he did have fun playing in the sand.

Maia and Isaac were having a blastI love this picture of MaiaIsaac was in utter and complete heavenThis is as close to the water as Asher would get! Don'tcha love his goggles?

After several hours we told the kids it was time to pack it up and head back. Andy wanted to find some treats. The kids, well 2 of them anyway, didn't want to leave. So we had some more tears. After we found the ice cream place and the homemade caramel corn our tears were all dried up and all was well.

But we knew we needed to come up with a different gameplan for tomorrow because everyone was just frustrated by this first day! I'm not saying it wasn't a fantastic day. It was. But I was trying to make everything perfect for everyone and the only thing I was accomplishing was making myself mad.

We headed back to the hotel and crashed. We were all exhausted!!

By the way if anyone wants to see more photo's friend me on facebook. I have all the pics up there. I can only load so many on Blogger so I have had to pick and choose

Travelling

We are officially home from vacation. It was a fabulous trip!! We had so much fun and really got some great bonding time in. I really did have grand plans about posting each evening about all our day's events, but honestly, by the end of each day all I could manage was dropping into bed and falling fast asleep. We packed our trip full of activities!! I did upload each days photo's to facebook. Does that count for anything?

Day 1 was our travel day. We had initially planned on dividing the trip up into 2 days but things were going so great that we just kept right on driving until we got there. The kids were fantastic!! No fighting at all!! Seriously, that is a feat with 3 children in one car for 12 straight hours. I was so proud. And here is the best part...we spent all 12 of those hours talking to each other. And playing games!! Even though we brought along the portable DVD player and lots of movies the kids chose to not get them out. Instead we told jokes and riddles and played all the classic long car ride games. It was an awesome trip!!

Aunt Jackie packed each kid a bag with treats, games, books, activities, DVD's, crayons and paper....etc. These bags were packed full and kept the kids very busy. Plus we kept track of who found the most license plates from other states. Isaac was VERY into this game as the prize was 5 bucks for finding the most. Maia said she didn't need the 5 bucks because she already had 5 bucks. Andy and I quickly decided that she would need to be introduced to a financial planner as soon as she was making her own money!! God love her.

Andy was thrilled that the speed limit through West Virginia was 70mph. We stopped at a nasty IHOP and the kids thought it was super funny that they stuck me with the duct taped seat!! My little businessman Isaac talked of how bad the IHOP was managed the entire trip!! Seriously, on his own he picked up that it was bad management to be out of the 3 things we wanted, the rude waitress and how dirty the relatively new restaurant seemed to be. He did think they picked an excellent location off the side of the highway though.

The kids were completely awed by the mountains and hills through West Virginia and Virginia. Truth be told Andy and I were too. Even though we both had seen these sights before it was totally different seeing them through the eyes of our children. And what a testament to the wonders of God's imagination!!

We did have a scary moment in West Virginia. A car swerved over into our lane and we were inches from being hit head on. It was so close that I almost threw up afterwards. I'm sure you wanted to know that right?

Our original goal was to get halfway to our destination but like I said everything was going so great that we thought maybe we could make it clear to Richmond. We pulled into a rest stop right as it was starting to get dark. We were the only ones there other than all the trucker's sleeping in their trucks on the other side of the stop. Just an FYI here...Virginia rest stops were fantastic. By far the cleanest that we saw on the trip. And believe you me...we stopped at A LOT of rest stops!! So I am an expert on this subject. So Andy parks just a bit away from the front of the rest stop. I think he was trying to get close to the trash can because he was obsessed with cleaning out the car at each stop. The car was far enough away from the entrance and it was just dark enough that it made me a bit nervous. We let the kids run around in the grass for a bit to get their energy out and to give Andy time to clean out the car. In the meantime a couple of cars pulled up to the left of us. Closer to the entrance of the building. I was getting the kids gathered up and settled back into the car when I heard Andy talking to someone on the right side of the car. Right away I got a sick feeling in my stomach. Something was definitely wrong here. The area was too isolated for someone to just pull up there for no reason. I hear the guy asking Andy for money and giving him some sort of story about being lost and out of gas. Andy tells the guy that he doesn't have any money on him but that he would be happy to call someone for him. Andy even suggested the police or highway patrol would probably be happy to help him out. The guy definitely didn't want Andy to call anyone for him. Says he is lost and far from home but his license plate tells another story. He was a local to the area. Well the guy's posture is not right at all. He is covering something up and leaning forward just enough so that Andy could not see his gas gauge. Isaac managed to sneak out of the car and made it to Andy before I realized what he was doing. Andy was already stressed that this guy is going to pull a weapon on him and having Isaac standing there next to him just made the situation 1000x worse!! Andy again apologized to the guy for not having any money to give him, pointed out the other cars and suggested he ask another traveller if they had any spare change. He quickly brought Isaac back around to the other side of the car and got situated to make a hasty exit. Except the guy had blocked us in!! Talk about scary. We felt really trapped. Finally the guy pulled up enough that we thought we were in the clear. But he still had us trapped in. He seemed like he really wasn't sure what he was gonna do. He waved us around him but had us blocked so we had nowhere to go. I could tell Andy was really nervous. It looked the guy was gonna approach one of the other cars and he finally pulled up just enough so that we could get out. At that point Andy very quickly exited the parking lot and the guy gunned it to follow us. He never talked to any of the other motorists. Andy was fast enough to lose the guy fairly quickly. Isaac was a nervous wreck the whole rest of the night. He kept checking behind us because he was scared the guy had found us again. I think God definitely gives us instincts and gut feelings for a reason. This guy was up to no good and we were very thankful to have gotten away safe.

After that little incident Andy decided that we would just travel all the way to Newport News. Our hotel reservation wasn't until the following night and we had no idea if we could get in a night early but we decided to give it a try. The last 2 hours all you could hear in our car was the sound of very tired children asking if we were there yet. We pulled into our hotel almost exactly 12 hours after we left our driveway. The kids did not sleep one wink the entire trip!!

We made it!!

We are on vacation!!! Officially :) We haven't had a true vacation in over 6 years. We have done lots and lots of day trips but nothing extended or very far from home.

My kids have never played in the ocean. They've never walked along the shore and spied hermit crabs or collected seashells or buried each other in the sand. They've never strolled the boardwalk with sticky salt water taffy stuck to their fingers and faces. They've never built a sandcastle or felt small while staring out at a never ending expanse of blue and waves.

When I was a little girl I got to experience all that and so much more. My Grandma took me on wonderful vacations. Vacations that made memories to last a lifetime and helped shape who I am today. I got to visit many many sites that played a pivotal role in the founding of our Nation. Vacations that started my love affair with history!!

I want to give my kids these same things. So after 12 hours in our cramped up CRV...we are here!!

The trip was mostly uneventful and went surprisingly fast!! The kids did fantastic! No fighting and nagging at all. They didn't ask that age old question, "are we there yet?", until we had been on the road for 10 hours. We played games and sang songs and talked and laughed out loud!!

We did almost get hit head on in West Virginia!! That was pretty scary. Coming through the mountains was awe inspiring!!! At a Virginia rest stop we were almost robbed. We made a few critical mistakes there but we are safe and sound and learned from them. Isaac was a nervous wreck for the next 3 hours but I think he has forgotten about it today.

Check back...I will be posting pictures of all of our adventures!!

Yellow Cars

Asher dreams of yellow cars.

I know this because Isaac hears him

talking in his sleep.

In his dreams he takes all of us for a ride

in his very fast yellow car.

Dear Isaac

Dear Isaac,

It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years since you were born. It seems like yesterday that I held you in my arms for the very first time. You were perfect. And I'm not just biased...all the Dr.s and nurses agreed. You even scored 2 perfect 10's on your APGAR's. From what I understand that NEVER happens!!

Our journey together didn't start in that delivery room though. It started long before that. You see I had hoped and prayed for a baby long before you came to be. I begged God to give me the gift of motherhood and He just didn't seem to hear me. I had enormous faith but that faith didn't stop the utter despair that I felt each month when I realized that I wasn't pregnant. It seemed that everyone around me was expecting a baby....except me.

Eventually I went to a special Dr. to see what was wrong. I underwent lots and lots of tests and started taking special medicine. I even had to get lots of shots. Now you know I was desperate if I was willing to endure ALL of that!! After several months I still wasn't pregnant.

In the midst of all of this I was being discipled. We came to the lesson on Baptism and my discipler basically said I must get baptized or she would cease the lessons. Well I definitely didn't want to stop being discipled! My relationship with the Lord was growing by leaps and bounds!! But baptism itself was very scary to me. I would have to get up in front of our whole big church and I would be vulnerable. I was afraid that people would think I was silly and would wonder why I wasn't baptized a long time ago. It was completely irrational but...well...we all know I'm not always rational!! And we all know that I am very sensitive to what I think other people think of me!! In the end I submitted to what God's Word called me to do. I called the church and set up my initial meeting for Baptism counseling. That call was my biggest step of faith up until that point.

The infertilty treatments were getting harder and harder on me each month. Daddy and I talked it over and decided that we would try one more month. Talk about adding stress on top of stress!! But I knew it was the right decision.

The big day of my Baptism came and it was nothing like I expected. When it was all over I felt triumphant!! My relationship with God felt more concrete. I really felt adopted by Him at that point. Fully His child. I was on cloud nine!

About 2 weeks later I was having quiet time alone with God. I was pouring over the scriptures in Psalms when it hit me. I was trying to make my will God's will. Maybe it wasn't in His plans for me to birth my own babies. Maybe He had something else in mind for my life. When I asked Jesus into my heart part of my decision included living my life for God's will...not my own will. Right then and there I turned the whole matter over to God! I cried and sobbed at what could be the end of my dream but in the end I said "Let Your will be my will Lord Jesus".

I woke up the next morning like a brand new person. The stresses of the past year were no longer on my shoulders but my Father was carrying them for me!! What a relief!! When I got to work that day even my co-workers recognized the change. Right around lunch time, on a whim, I decided to take a pregnancy test. Good thing I worked in a pharmacy right? I expected nothing but the usual negative result from that test. To be honest I'm not even sure why I took a test that day. Imagine my surprise when it turned up positive!!

I called Daddy and the Dr.s office right away. The very next morning I got to see you on an ultrasound machine. Even though you were just a blip on the screen at that point I knew right away you were a boy. On the way home from the appointment Daddy and I decided that if you were indeed a boy we would name you Isaac. It was just so fitting!! What could be better than a promised child who's name means God's laughter?

Isaac you have taught me so many lessons through the past ten years. You have taught me that I don't always need a full nights sleep to survive the next day!! You have taught me not to sweat the small stuff. You have taught me appreciate bugs. You have taught me to never give up. You have taught me to laugh out loud. You have taught me that tomorrow is a new day. This list could go on and on!! But the most important thing you have taught me was to have Faith in God's will for my life. One of my biggest prayers for you is that you will learn this lesson early. You have a very strong will and always want things to go your way. But I'm here to tell you that God's way is better. If things had gone my way instead of God's way....then I wouldn't have you today. God's timing is always best!! And you were most definitely worth the wait!! I believe very strongly that you were a gift to me. A gift for turning my will over to Him and trusting Him with my heart.

One more thing...I know that you sometimes struggle with wondering where you fit in this life. Wondering if you are fully wanted and loved. I'm not sure if it's your age or hereditary as I must admit that I sometimes still struggle with these same thoughts and feelings. But Isaac please never forget your story. The story of how you came to be. I wish you could feel for a brief moment the feelings that I felt as I was getting ready to introduce you to all the people we love. I was holding you in my arms and I knew that there was a waiting room full of family just waiting to get a glimpse of your face. As we rounded the corner my heart swelled up to completely overflowing with pride. I couldn't wait to let the world see the beautiful gift God had given me. And Isaac I have felt that way every single moment since. I am so proud of the boy you have become. My heart overflows with love for you...even on our worst days!!

Since Isaac hit the big milestone double digits and because I didn't get everything I wanted to say in this one post in....look for a dear Isaac II real soon.