Happy Birthday!

I can't believe he is 10 years old today!  What a decade it has been!!!!  There are enough stories to write a mini-series on his short life.  I always find myself reflecting back on their birth on their birthdays!  I hesitate in doing so with Joseph.  Do I still have some hidden guilt on the way I handled his early birth and my bad health?  Do I still wish things had turned out different?  Or do I just wish I had known then how it would be today?  I don't know the answer but I find it hard nonetheless.

We celebrated his birthday a day early as I am giving a talk tonight regarding the walk this weekend.  He was invited by the T.O.R.C.H. group at Bishop Neumann to come with me so the kids could meet the little guy they are going to sponsor this weekend.  I heard from a little bird that attends school there (ahem....wonder who that is???) that they were giving him a surprise birthday party.  So we did our family thing last night with all the siblings.  He is big....REALLY BIG....into Transformers.  So that is what we focused on.  The big hit was a Wii game that Jeffrey gave him!

Birthday boy and oldest sister, Amy

With his shirt sister Mary Clare made him.

His reaction to the Transformer that mom and dad gave him.

I love seeing that smile!!!!!

So tonight he will go hang out with all the high school kids who dote over him.  He will be a super star.  He says he wants to "give a talk about autism".  I asked him what he would say.  He told me that he wanted to tell them what it was like to have autism.  There will be a senior girl from Villa Marie who has autism and she will give a speech on the same topic.  But we will see if he actually has the nerve to do it.  Usually he shuts down in these forums.

And so....

Happy Birthday, my little boy!  It has been a lesson in life that God knew I needed.  You have taught me patience and unconditional love.  You have taught me how important the message of life truly is, no matter the handicap, and that it goes far beyond the life of the child in the womb.  You have taught me that there is goodness in all of God's creatures.  You have taught me that I can go on very little sleep and just how much I truly NEED that sleep!  You have taught me to cry, to laugh, to sing, to pray and to live.  You have taught me detachment to material things as you have absolutely NO attachment to them!  You have taught me that a mother's love is the strongest emotion on earth.  I love you......"to the moon and back again.....around the earth and back again....I love you more!!!!"