Happy Birthday, Joshua!!!!!

Today, Joshua turns 9! I can’t believe I have a 9 year old. It seems like yesterday he was just born and now he is one year away from being in the double digits! Let me share my Joshua story on this very special day. All my life I wanted to be a wife and mom. Jack and I got married and we both knew we needed time as a couple before we started on the lifelong journey of parenthood. I always worried that I would not be able to have kids. The time came when we started trying. After what seemed like an eternity of trying and after getting settled into a new job and getting new insurance I finally got in to my doctor to try for “extra help” in getting pregnant. I was so excited to start on this journey. A few days later I got a call from my doctor……”do not start the medicine…..you can’t get pregnant at this time….you are not immune to Rubella and you need a shot and you have to WAIT THREE MONTHS to start trying”. I know three months is not a long time, but when you are trying, it is an eternity. I would cry a lot because I saw so many of my friends and relatives getting pregnant….and so easily. I made it through the three months, went back to the doctor and we got started. I must admit that time was very trying as we had to keep getting blood work done, adjusting the medicine accordingly. At the end of the third month of medicine (Clomid) it worked. I remember waking up early to take a pregnancy test. I waited the three minutes and it was positive. I knew it couldn’t be right because I put the test up side down! (that’s what happens after so many negative tests). To prove my theory of messing up the test, I decided to go out and buy another one. This was 7 am in the morning and the only thing open was Food Lion. I remember telling Jack I had to go to the store and I had to go now….but I didn’t tell him why. I came home, took the second test, and of course, it was positive. I had a pretty easy pregnancy….no sickness, few cravings. Late December they put me to part time because of the swelling in my feet, and the last two weeks, I had “bed rest”…..which was pretty much just stay at home and keep the feet up. Sunday morning, January 29th I didn’t feel the greatest, so we stayed home from church (he was due on the 25th). Evening came, and I called my doctor for what I think is contractions. She said to call if it got to 10 minutes in between. The Super Bowl came on and I sat through the ENTIRE superbowl (Jack can still tell you who was playing) having contractions, nothing really bad, and not close enough. I remember starting the first season of Survivor. Around 10:30 or 11 the doctor called me back and told me to come on in. When I got to the hospital they almost sent me home because my contractions would not register on the computer. I was a little frustrated and tired, but the doctor checked me and said I was dilating and far enough to stay! At 5:50 in the morning, I had Joshua Caleb McLean weighing 8 pounds and 1 ounce. We ran into obstacles with him being born with cleft palate, my post partum depression and things like that, but God saw us through it all. After two years of doctors and hospitals, the worse was behind us. Happy 9th Birthday, Joshua!! You are a blessing from God and we love you very very much!!!