The day Samuel turned 2

The past couple of days have been busy in the Askew household.  Sam is turning 2 and we had planned to have a few friends over to celebrate his birthday.  Naturally, there was a lot of cleaning, tidying, and food prep involved.  We were ready.  Until this morning.

Sam falls asleep in his own bed, in his own room.  However, between 1 and 2 am, he wanders into our room and ends up in our bed.  Last night was no different.  What's different was that this morning at around 4:30 am, he started vomiting.  Then again; and again, and again.  In between throwing up, my little boy whined and cuddled with mommy and daddy.  It broke my heart.  Why does he have to get sick now, on his special day.  Not on his 2nd birthday.  Maybe it was something he ate, maybe it'll go away.  But it didn't.  He kept throwing up that we made a decision to take him to the ER.  The Dr. said he has a stomach virus and it's contagious.  Naturally we contacted our guests and cancelled his party.

We took him home a few hours later.  Thankfully with the medicine, the vomiting abated.  He was able to keep down sips of apple juice, which seems to be enough to keep him hydrated.  We took a long nap and when we woke up, he seemed better, except for the redness in his bum due to wet poopies.  And we changed him every 20 minutes or so and his bum got worse and worse that with each diaper change, he is screaming after each wipe.

This is what Sam had to endure today, on his birthday.  It's taking a lot for me to not break down and cry every 30 minutes, but every time I hear him cry, my heart breaks more and more.  Josh picked up his cake from our friend, Charmaine, who very creatively and lovingly created a train-shaped cake for Sam.  It is beautiful.  I will save taking a picture later, as we will be celebrating Sam's birthday next weekend.  Luckily we can freeze the cake and still eat it later.

Right now, my little guy has stopped vomiting, has been drinking lots of fluids, and playing intermittently with his toys.  He's kept some food down, and I am praying that he continues to improve throughout the night.  I was so sad about the events today, but it also made me realize how lucky I still am.  There are parents out there who lost their child in a senseless shooting, and they will never see their child celebrate another birthday.  I am still lucky that even though Sam got sick today, on his birthday, that there are still other birthdays.  So instead of having a party, we cuddled and hugged all day and I cherish these days more than anything.

After Thanksgiving pictorial.  Enjoying his sucker.

Not feeling well.  In the car after our ER visit 12/29/2012

Time flies

At about this time two years ago, as I was getting up to go and eat dinner, my water broke. After almost 9 hours of labor, Sam was born. It's still hard to believe. It still feels surreal sometimes. Having Sam was a long journey, a challenging one with a lot of heartaches and disappointments. But here we are today. I will always be grateful for this day, this moment. God is good.

Snow

My little guy does not like the snow

Merry Christmas!

This year, we are spending Christmas without family, just the three of us. However, more than the gifts, our family is thankful for the life borne today. We are thankful for Jesus.

Sam was happy to see Santa's gifts it took him a while to open other gifts. Thank you to all our family and friends for the wonderful things you have give us. We hope that everyone had a very merry Christmas like we did.

Halloween, Thanksgiving, and more

The last couple of months have been busy.  Halloween and thanksgiving went by, and everytime I started to try and write a blog, something comes up.  With Josh in school, I have found very little free time in the evenings to catch up with my thoughts.  Thankfully, school is now finally over and I can catch up with blogging.  So just to be short and sweet, Sam enjoyed his second Halloween (first official since he actually got to go and trick or treat). 

He was a really cute dragon and I enjoyed taking pictures of him.

We had the opportunity of having my family come over for Thanksgiving.  We also made time to take pictures courtesy of Inga Vintere.  

It's 9 days before Christmas and I am glad to have all my Christmas shopping done. But with that excitement and anticipation of seeing the look on Sam's face when he opens his present, there is a deep sadness within me, thinking of the families of the 18 children that were killed in Newtown, CT.  There are no words to explain the sadness and the ache.  I can only imagine what it would feel like for the parents of those children to wake up on Christmas morning and not hear the excited laugh and squeals from their children.  I cannot fathom the evilness and monstrosity of that person who would harm innocent children.   I am only praying that God will appease the affected families' hurt and pain, and will ever be grateful for my little boy.