Happy Birthday, Sweet Baby Son!

One year ago today, February 20, 2006, our precious baby son, Jackson, was born at 3:07 p.m. He weighed 7 lbs, 8 oz, and was 20 inches long. Thank you, God, for this amazing and wonderful blessing! Our prayer is that Jackson will be strong and healthy, will grow in the Lord, and will serve Him with his whole heart! We pray that as parents, we will raise him with love, kindness, grace, and respect, and that we can instill values in him that he can live by for his whole life. What a responsibility!

What fun we had today! We woke up to hearing our sweet boy playing in his crib. Nathan & I went in, video camera in hand, singing "Happy Birthday" to our son for the first time!We were blessed to spend lunch with Grandma & Grandpa D. What a fun time we had at Golden Corral! Our server even brought a yummy piece of chocolate cake - with sprinkles - to our table for Jackson to dig into.
Guess what we did after that? We turned Jackson's carseat around so he now faces forward. He has a brand new vantage point on the world!After running some errands, coming home to find lots of wonderful birthday cards and gifts in the mail, and spending a nice afternoon visit with our friends, Jimmy, Betty & Dot, we enjoyed a birthday dinner with our friends Jesse, Kara & Ethan at Chili's. What a fun day! Tomorrow we visit our pediatrician for Jackson's one-year check up where we'll find out what he weighs and how long he is now. Also included in this visit will be four more immunizations, poor little fella. :-(

Thank you to all of you who have walked beside us during this year-long journey. There have been many sleepless nights, approximately 2500 diaper changes, about 175 baths, numerous bottle feedings (and bottle washings!), countless at-home photo shoots, many miles in the car and in the airplanes, our fair share of bumps and bruises, a few tears...and it's been worth every single second! Oh, did we forget to mention never-ending hugs & kisses?? What an amazing year...I dare say the best year of our lives so far! We can't wait to see what this next year holds for our family. Thank you for your love & support!