Ben's First Year

It's always hard for Matt and I to look back at the early pictures of Ben because it was not the ideal start for any baby. One morning our lives were normal, I was in my second trimester of pregnancy and loving it, and we were slowly making preparations for an addition to our family. By the time we went to bed that night, we were parents, I was in the hospital in the Woodlands recovering from an emergency c-section, and our new baby was struggling for every breath in downtown Houston. Suddenly we were learning a whole new language of conditions that can affect premature babies and educating ourselves on all the hurdles Ben would face. It was a complete surprise and not at all what we expected or dreamed about for the birth of our first child.

Now, over a year later and nearly a year since we brought Ben home, we have the advantage of perspective when we look back at our experience. We can appreciate the miracle of life, a healthy baby, normal development, and every unassisted breath so much more than we ever could have before. We learned that our families will walk step by step with us through a crisis, our friends will help in any way possible when we are in need, and strangers that work in the hospitals will become life-savers. Most importantly, we learned that God will give us almost unknown strength to meet our challenges each day.

I'd been meaning to do this since Ben's birthday in May but I just now got the time to put this together. Enjoy the first chapter of his life...there will hopefully be many, many more to come.

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