Happy Birthday Sweet Magdalyn Joy!!

Crazy to think exactly a year ago at this time we were prepping for surgery and preparing to welcome a baby into the world.  Some of you probably remember staying up late to find out if it was a boy or girl.  With so much anticipation, we never could have expected the year we would have.

After approximately...

365 days

2,000 diaper changes

65,000 minutes of nursing

4 trips to an emergency room

26 nights of hospital stays

90 mLs of blood draws

2 MRIs

3 CT scans

18 EEGs

220 hours of therapy

4 trips to Connecticut

14 different medications

18,000 miles logged on the car

500 hours spent researching on the internet

hundreds and hundreds of friends encouraging, praying, and supporting us

AND one BIG God carrying us

...we have finally arrived at a very special day, Maggie' 1st birthday!!!

There were many of nights over the past year that Shawn and I lay in bed pondering whether or not we would ever have the opportunity to celebrate this milestone!   And here we are...Wow!!  There is no way we could have made it through this year without all of the support we've received.  THANK YOU!!

How did we celebrate, you ask... As typical, we had a trip to Knoxville for therapy.  Since they have all been such an integral part of us being able to celebrate today, Maggie brought them a nice plant as a Thank you!

Then the final Wednesday night family meal at church was a birthday celebration for Little Miss!  The donations from her meal and the evening brought in about $1,800...wow!  Maggie slept through the entire dinner and woke up as everyone headed off to their classes.  Little Stinker!

While teaching Pre-K at Heritage, I started the tradition of following a traditional Happy Birthday song with the doxology.  I knew this was a tradition I wanted to carry into my future family.  Little did I know, requesting we do that at church tonight would be so emotional.  Yes, today is about Maggie because it her birthday, but really the praise and honor belongs to God.  He is the one that has truly blessed us with this year and deserves ALL our praise!!

Praise Gid from whom all blessings flow

Praise Him all creatures here below

Praise Him above ye Heavenly Host

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

I can't say it loud enough...AMEN!!

And, tonight, instead of lying her down in her bed, I decided to snuggler her close longer, savoring every moment we have!