LJB

 Our 7th child, born on 9/11, Lucas John……..HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY LIL MAN!!!!!  

Oh what to say - I don’t want to get too wordy!!!  His first year of life was spent in three NICUs - East TN, Vandy, and Boston.  His first year of life he underwent two heart surgeries.  He lived at home with us on oxygen and a feeding tube.  He didn’t start eating solid food until he was 3.5 years old.  He just started walking this summer.  He doesn’t talk much.  He’s not where he should be developmentally.  He has many scars from all of his hospitalizations.  Where his chest was cracked open for his heart surgeries, it still bulges out.  He has Down Syndrome.  And until this last summer I could just stop there and say “The End”.  My heart was full of bitterness, brokenness, and anger.  I didn’t understand why God chose me to be his mom and ashamedly I really didn’t want to be.  But praise the Lord that is not the end.  This summer, unbeknownst to him, one of our foster kids changed my whole world.  Changed my heart.  Now, I am enjoying Lucas, loving him, cuddling him, and I am humbly proud to be his mama.  I don’t define him by what I thought were his weaknesses.  They are actually his strengths.  Our story, this boy and I, has not ended.  It has only just begun.  Keep making this world smile, Lucas, and keep on fist bumping!!!!