Our double blessings: Gratitude

I am taking some time this morning organizing pictures since the boys were first born and reflecting on this incredible journey. God continues to grace our family with gift after gift as we witness our sons growing bigger, stronger. We often find ourselves so consumed by the next challenge that one or both boys need to overcome in order to have them come home to us that some times we lose the big picture of how far they’ve already come.

It wasn’t that long ago that many questioned if we’d even have two babies to take home. As much hope and faith as Mark and I share, we were terrified of what the outcome might be for our tiny, frail sons and wouldn’t have even dared to dream of a homecoming because it seemed so far away, if at all.

I know we still have a ways to go and the days seem so very long when they stand between us and having our babies home but the tasks that are in front of us now are so easily attainable compared to the earlier challenges. It might take time for our boys to coordinate eating on their own and breathing at the same time, and having their still immature systems process food but in time, they will. Alex will have a new shunt that he needs, Nicholas will have his hernia repaired. Both boys will continue to grow and get stronger every day and there will be this incredible, beautiful, blissful day that we’ve dreamed about forever when we get to say good bye to the hospital and move on to an “ordinary” life at home with our boys where all of this will soon be just a piece of their story, not the whole one.

I wonder if the boys have any sense of the number of people who have been pulling for them, praying for them, sending love long even before they were born. I’m not even sure Mark and I do. Almost every day we learn of a friend or family member who has shared our story, or someone who has forwarded or simply stumbled upon our blog and find that there is one more family or church group that we’ve never met holding the boys in their prayers . There are no words to describe how deeply touched we are by this.

Speaking of gratitude, I’ve been meaning to include a HUGE thank you to all of our friends and family. They have been such an incredible support to us before, during and since the birth of our boys. I am embarrassed to think of how many thank you’s have still yet to be written all the way back to the incredible baby showers we had. We had three incredible showers generously given by our family and each of our work places. The timing was impeccable. Little did we know at the time, the last two showers were given just the weekend before I was admitted on bed rest that Monday. We had planned to have the showers early simply knowing that the boys were likely going to come early (no one guessing how early ofcourse) and Mark and I wanting to have time to work on the babies room before I got too big and uncomfortable.

It is rare that I find myself speechless but I have to say that the outpouring of support both before and after the boys arrival has left me that way on a number of occasions. All the notes, cards, phone calls, hand holding, meals, gift cards, rides to the hospital when I couldn’t drive (I just know I’m forgetting some things here) but they have all meant the world to us and we just couldn’t have gotten through this time half as well without all of you!!!!

I wish I had more photos from all of the showers but here are a couple…..

Cakes, cakes, and more cakes….Almost too pretty to eat (yeah right!). I can barely keep myself from the sugar on a regular day, most people knew to step back when I was pregnant if they were holding any type of food, especially something sweet :)