Birthday blessings

When I was in college, it was a tradition in our Catholic campus ministry to say a prayer of thanksgiving for someone's life on their birthday. Last week I celebrated Sir Toddler's, and was overcome by how much he has grown in two years. Today I celebrate my own. Birthdays during motherhood are much less hedonic than those of years past. This morning started at 4 AM with Lady Infant singing for her supper and refusing to be placated by the pacifier, and again at 6 AM with the same story. I had to fight through my fog of grogginess to get us all dressed and out the door for Sir Toddler's dentist appointment, where the tears started when we got his weight...long before we sat in the dentist's chair. I spent his nap cleaning the bathroom (and trying to de-mold the tub toys, urgh) and sorting baby clothes (we have an ongoing clothing exchange between Lady Infant, her four-year-old cousin in FL, and that cousin's sister due in August). And yet I couldn't have asked for a better day.

I woke up to the sound of two lives that wouldn't have existed without me, and next to my favorite person in the whole wide world. The sun is shining and the weather is beautiful.

Being an April baby from New England, I've had a lot of birthdays where that wasn't the case.

And today I am giving thanks for not only my own life, for for the lives of my children. If my own parents hadn't been open to that gift of life, my son and my daughter would not be on this earth. Mr. Husband and I can't imagine our lives without them now that they are here, and I know that they are also beloved by our parents, siblings, grandparents, other family, and friends. My children are more precious to me than I can describe, and they are the birthday present that keeps on giving.