Happy Birthday "B" !!!

Yesterday was a very special day.  Our oldest foster toddler, "B", turned 3 years old!

I would love to share with you the story of how and why he and his brother came into care.  The hard life they had before coming here.  The huge miracle God has done in their lives.  How far they have come in just the short seven months they have been here.  I would love to share their sweet faces with you, in the pictures we have taken to remember the day.  I will have to wait.  We will both have to be patient and wait for a time that it is safe to share it all.  We will just know in our hearts, every day has been a gift and give glory to God for His amazing grace and mighty hand in theirs and our lives.

So today, I write to rejoice that the boys are here and to wish a very happy birthday, to a little boy that most likely never had a birthday celebration before.  A happy birthday to a little ball of energy, that is full of mischief and has a strong will...to a little boy that has stolen our hearts....He had a wonderfully amazing day.

We don't usually do big things for the kids birthdays.  It is our tradition to take the birthday child out to eat, anywhere they wish to eat out at.  (within reason)  They may have soda to drink on their day and can pick out one thing they really want as a gift from a store. (again within budget and reason) We don't wrap it up.  They just tell us what they want and we get it for them.  A lot of thought goes into their choice.  We sing happy birthday to them and eat cake that evening after supper.  I try to do one party sometime in their life, at an age they can remember and enjoy it but most years we keep it low key and simple.

We feel that the boys had never experienced birthdays before because they had no idea how to open gifts, they did not know what cake was and the first few birthdays we had here, when we sang happy birthday, "B" shook as if terrified and cried when we sang.  Before they came here their basic needs were not even being met, let alone anything else.  So...Since we don't know anything of the boys past and I don't know for sure that the boys will be staying here. (Even though DFCS is filing for termination, one just never knows when working with the system.)  So, we decided to make a very special memory for him.  We saved back a little money from our food budget this month and took him to Chucky Cheese for his birthday.  It is an hour away.  It is a children's pizza place that has puppets singing on stage, some games like ski-ball and those tubes the kids play in.  A big deal for small children.  I have not been there since my Middles were little and we only went a few times ever with them. 

"B" was beside himself in awe.  He had such a wonderful time and is at just the right age.  I learned I can't easily chase toddlers in places like that anymore, so William kept up with "B" and Carolyn with "T".  Tim's parents met us there and we just sat, visited and let the children play till they were exhausted.  We spent three hours there.  

My dad had given "B" some money for his birthday so on the way home, we stopped by Toys R Us and let "B" pick out his gifts.  He choose a little play tent with Lightning McQueen on it, a match box car of Lightning McQueen and one of Mater.

When we got home, we fixed spaghetti for him, his favorite food.   My wonderful sister made his cake.  A Thomas the tank engine cake.  It was a great hit.  She always makes it gluten free so the other children can eat cake as well.  So thoughtful.  She is quite the artist.

To end the evening Tim and I let him and his brother watch a movie in their bedroom as they fell asleep. 

Happy, happy Birthday "B".  You mean so much to me.  I love your big strong hugs that choke me and your hard kisses.  I love your brilliance, activity and thirst to learn.   We all love you, you little ball of energy!  May the Lord God in heaven have His mighty hand on you, your whole life.  May you always have christian people in your life to guide you.  May you always live for God and be greatly used of Him all the days of your life.

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Love, Daddy, mommy, Stephen, Antonio, William, Carolyn, Zeke, Elizabeth, "T" and baby "K"!