Another Special Day

Yes, yes, you can believe your eyes! This is my third birthday post in the past 3 months. And there's one more to come in a couple weeks. You see, early in our married years my hubby worked away a LOT. (We think it averaged to about 250 days of the year.) I seldom saw him from October to May, but got spend oodles of time together all summer. Hence, 4 babies with spring birthdays, lol.

Enough dirty talk, let me introduce you to the birthday girl: Shea Makenna, 3 years old!

This is her typical expression - giggling. Well, besides the other standard look and sound - hysterical shrieking accompanied by gigantic crocodile tears because her siblings ran ahead of her, leading Shea to the inevitable conclusion that they're "not my friend, waaaaaaaaaaa!" LOL, we really do love her, drama and all. After all, she's somewhat of a miracle girl.

Pat and I had decided it was time to be done birthing children after our third, Megan. We were worn out, Pat was still working away lots, and I was struggling with post-partum depression. On October 31, 2003, Pat took a little trip to the doctor for a 'procedure.' Not long after that, I was on medication for the depression and coping with life much better. Oh, the regret! I just kept thinking to myself, "what have we done?" I begged the Lord for forgiveness for taking things into our own hands and not trusting Him, I pleaded with Him to heal our mistake, believing that He totally could, but knowing that didn't necessarily mean He would.

Needless to say, in August of 2004, I was not particularly surprised to see 2 blue lines. Pat, on the other hand, nearly keeled over in shock! I have to tell you, this man of mine is something special. Friends and family joked around (some less joking than others), teasing that the baby might look like the mail man. But my man, he NEVER questioned, hinted, or pondered anything but the truth - he was going to be a Daddy to 4! (Once he picked his jaw up off the ground, he was pretty darn excited, too.)


April 13, 2005 - right on her due date, our beatiful Shea arrived. BTW, her name means blessing (how perfect is that?). Once I was really in labour - did you know that the more children you have the stupider you become about labour - it took no time at all. Pat joked that the only reason I made him take me to the hospital was so we could show them how fast it could be done, lol. Home again in less than 12 hours. I have a very sad confession to make - it took me 30 minutes to find a baby picture of Shea, found it in a big box in my bedroom closet. Sadly, I found a zillion other pictures, dating back to Christmas 2002. I need help, people!

Shea is such an engaging little girl. She looks at you with those great big baby blues, cracks a giant dimpled smile, and lets out with a hearty and contagious giggle! It's the greatest thing. Ever.


Sigh. I can't believe that my baby girl will be starting playschool in September. It's not a cliche if it's true (is it?) - they really do grow up so fast.

Happy birthday, baby girl!