Look who's TEN!!!!!

Happy Birthday, Nico!
Nico is our miracle baby, as Mike and I had given up on the idea of ever having biological children. We had gone through 2 years of infertility treatments - to no avail. We were broke and emotionally drained, and very sad.
Then, one day, things didn't seem right.
But it seemed too good to be true.
It WAS true!
And now it's 10 years later, and we are so very, very proud of our firstborn.
He is a very kind, thoughtful and responsible boy, he has a great imagination and sets a good example for his brothers and sisters (well, most of the time... ).
He loves skateboarding, playing soccer, he likes Math and Science and remote controlled cars.
He is trying to grow his hair out (he does NOT like the ponies, though!), and he loves to imitate people. He is really good at it too!

During my early pregnancy I had a very defining moment as a Mom-to-be. I was almost paralyzed with fear that I might miscarry him, and it was horrible. Then, one night God spoke to me. It was one of those "I can almost hear you audibly" kind of moments. What the Lord spoke to me was this:
"He is not your child. He is mine, and he always will be!"
Whoa, I felt like I was standing on holy ground. In all those years since then I have been so thankful for this lesson. My kids are truly not mine, and knowing this has helped lighten the load on so many days.
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Here are some pictures of the birthday boy!


He got a new bike from us. It's bright green and he loves it. It's his first bike with gears!
And, believe it or not, he also got a pellet gun from Grandma and Grandpa. Yes, we live in Wyoming, but you can't forget that I grew up in a neutral country with very pacifist views. Having my ten year old play with a GUN is quite outside my comfort zone *sigh*.
Alex told him "don't shoot me, Nico", and Nico answered: "I would never ever in my long legged life shoot you!". So funny!
He is a happy camper after this birthday.
Me too, because I had a plumber come and fix the leak in our house that I discovered this morning. You know what it was? When our upstairs bathroom got trimmed out EIGHT years ago, they shot a nail through a water pipe!! EIGHT years ago, and just now the nail was so rusted that it started leaking. Well, and leaking it did, all the way to the basement. Thank God I was home AND heard the dripping early on!
Needless to say, the birthday dinner did not happen at our house as planned, but we managed to at least bake a cake :-))