1 Samuel 1:27 – I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. (NIV)

Today is my sweet baby boy’s birthday.  He is 35, but he’ll always be my baby!  Celebrating his birthday brings up memories of his birth-day and other days as well.  At that time you took the pregnancy test in the doctor’s office, and I can remember waiting anxiously and excitedly for the results.  When the nurse announced “positive”, I went straight to my husband’s office because I just couldn’t wait for him to get home that afternoon to tell him the happy news. Because of injuries I had sustained in a car accident before we were married, the doctor had told us that I would have difficulty conceiving and carrying a baby to term, so this was indeed happy news!  It still makes me smile to think about telling our parents and grandparents.  When I told my grandmother, she gave me a quilt that she had made in advance for her first great-grandchild.  That quilt was the centerpiece of our nursery and is now on our granddaughter’s bed.  I was so excited to be pregnant that I would wear maternity tops over my regular pants!  In the hours before his birth, I taught kindergarten on Friday, shopped all day Saturday, went to church Sunday morning then had friends over for dinner and a movie Sunday night.  I went to the hospital in the early hours of Monday morning.  We were the first people at our hospital to do Lamaze so it was an interesting few hours (the nurse thought I was hyperventilating), but by 7:30 that morning I was holding my baby boy – 28 days before his due date!  When we called people to tell them about the baby, no one believed us.  My principal told me to stop being silly and get myself to work!  My granny squealed, “I knew it was a boy.”  When reminded that she had been saying “girl” all along, she immediately replied, “well, I knew it was one or the other.”  When we called my parents, my dad was on the far side of the farm feeding the cows.  My mom got so excited that she walked through the snow to find him and they both walked back to the house, leaving the tractor sitting in the pasture!  Our son had infantile asthma, and there were times of getting in the crib with him so he would not be afraid under the croup tent, sleeping on the floor beside his bed so we could hear him breathe, and holding him so the medicated mist could blow in his face.  We prayed for him and over him daily from before he was even born and have seen so many prayers answered.  We have prayed petitions; we have prayed praises: we have prayed scripture. When he was a little boy, we started praying for the unknown little girl that would one day be his wife.  The first time we met that special young lady, my husband and I both knew that prayer had been answered as well.  We have seen this sweet baby boy grow into a strong Godly man, husband, and father. Like Hannah, I can say “I prayed for this child and the Lord has granted what I asked of Him”.