Lucky Thirteen and Counting

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY! 

You have been so excited about this birthday.  It has been hard for you to make your birthday choices though.  For the last three weeks we have been talking about where you want to eat for your birthday.  You ask me, almost everyday, where I want to go for your birthday, and every time you ask I tell you the same thing,  "It’s not my birthday.  You have to choose where you want to go, not where I want to go." Twice after I said that to you, I heard you ask Dad where he wants to go. That is one of the things I like VERY best about you.  You like to make other people happy.  You wanted us to have just as much as fun as you on your birthday.  

I think, as of yesterday, we are going to Black Angus for a steak.  I think that is a great choice by the way.  On your eleventh birthday you are shopping for a Nintendo DS.  I think this will be the third one you’ve purchased in your life.  Why do we keep buying these things if they break?  

Coco, I know that you know your birth story better than any kid in the house.  You love to hear about it and always want to listen to it again and again.  All the people that read mom’s blog like to hear our stories too.  Do you mind if we tell them? 

One night, exactly eleven years ago today, in inner city Chicago, you were born to a young mama.  She didn’t have a home, and she didn’t have any money, or a job.  She also didn’t have anyone to help her raise you.  The boy that she loved was shot and killed in a gang fight just three months before you were born.  She was so heartbroken, she didn’t even realize that she was expecting you.  

When her tummy started hurting really bad, she went to the ER at the closest hospital she could get to.  While she was changing into the hospital gown, you slipped right out of her tummy and on to the floor.  You were so tiny, the doctors and nurses didn’t you think you were alive.  But they saw your tiny heart beating, so they took you upstairs to the nursery.

They told your birth mom that you wouldn’t live very long, because you only weighed one pound and eleven ounces, and you were as long as a baby bottle.  But your little heart just kept on beating!  The next day, they decided you were a fighter.  You must have been working so hard to stay alive.  They called for an ambulance to take you to a better hospital, one that had all the things you needed to help keep you fighting.  

That is where you spent the next three months of your life.  The nurses loved you.  They named you Mikey.  They told me you looked like a frog when they first met you.  They said, "We have watched this frog turn into a handsome prince."   When I met you, you were five pounds eleven ounces.  You were done being in the hospital.  You needed to find a family and get out of that place.  

When they called me and told me your story.  I said, "I want him!!!!"  

They said, "Come get him."

So I did.  

I hopped on a plane and flew to Chicago and scooped you right up!  You were the saddest looking little baby I had ever seen.  I thought, holy cow, if this baby is a prince now, I can’t imagine what he looked like in the frog stage.  I better take him home and love him forever.  

and I did.

You got cuter everyday.  I think you are still getting cuter everyday.  The girls are going to be chasing you boy!  I hope you can run fast.

I am so proud of all the things you are doing.  School is getting easier for you.  You are reading like a champion.  Do you know what I like the very best?  You do your homework every night without being asked.  You have grown up so much.  I love that you are so responsible.  That makes me very proud.  

I love how much you like soccer.  I have never had a kid that can run that field as fast as you, or smile as big while playing.  You are an athlete.  When I am watching you play your little heart out, I always think about how far you have come.  You are an amazing fighter.  I see it when you are fighting for every goal.  I smile big when I watch you.  You make me happy.

I love what a scared-y-cat you are.  You are afraid of everything!  I know you hate it, but I love it.  That sweet innocence makes me laugh.  I always giggle when I see you hide behind the pillows on the couch while you are watching TV.  I don’t know any other kid in the world that is afraid of Ferris Bueller, but not afraid of Pirates of the Caribbean.  What’s up with that dude?  

Coco, you have been a joy and delight to have.  I love you so much and can’t wait to see what year eleven brings.  I hope your birthday is everything you want it to be.  

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLBY MICHAEL

I love you-

mom