Happy Birthday Joshua!

Today is Joshua's birthday and Melissa wrote a very sweet post about her life this week last year. Like Ella, Joshua also suprised us all, especially his parents, by coming 4 weeks early. I remember so vividly how I felt last year when we thought Joshua was coming, then he wasn't, then he was! You'll have to read her post. It was an exciting week of wondering if he was going to come for sure or not. I had just had Ella 2 1/2 months before this, so I knew exactly the thrill and excitement that Melissa and Peter were feeling and we were in the same hospital, so I was definitely reliving many memories. It's scary thinking your baby is coming early, but also there this huge feeling of knowing this is "it" and peace that there is a reason why God has planned for our baby to be with us now.

Melissa has been one of my closest friends for almost a decade! To be able to be at the hospital and see Joshua wheeled out of the operating room minutes after he was born, was very touching to me. I loved him from that first moment I saw him.

Happy Birthday Joshua, you big blue eye boy!! It has been a joy to get to see you almost everyday this entire first year of your life. Watching you and Ella grow up together is so special. Life doesn't get much better than watching your closest friends' babies grow and change along side your own. I love you and can't wait to celebrate your first birthday in a few hours!
Me holding Joshua 3 days after he was born. I have this really great picture taken on this same day of Kristin holding Joshua in one arm and Ella in the other but I can not find it. I'll have to do some serious searching for it because it's precious.

On a totally different subject, my mom, Ella and I are driving to Kansas this afternoon. We will be gone until Tuesday night. My cousin Soni had a baby boy a month ago and it has been driving me crazy that I haven't met him yet. Little David is the first baby in their family, so it's just him and Ella. This is Ella's first cousin! I can't wait to see that sweet boy and hold an itty bitty baby again.