Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Thoughts on My 39th Birthday

What I wanted to tell you, at last, about spring break is this: we celebrated my thirty-ninth birthday. We also celebrated my brother's thirty-sixth.

There had been moments when I just wasn't sure we would make it. So much had happened among us: even just since I'd celebrated my thirty-eighth birthday, and my brother his thirty-fifth.

In the 365 days between my birthdays, Jim had undergone gastric-bypass surgery (and I'd acknowledged, signature on the line, risks up to and including death); my older nephew's elbow and fingers had been pinned back together after a serious ATV accident; my brother had gone paralyzed and, subsequently, undergone surgeries to insert a nerve stimulator in his back; and I'd undergone an emergency c-section to get Baby Chip, whom I'd been terrified over since (one month after a miscarriage) getting pregnant.

For the first time on this birthday, my thirty-ninth, we're all safely in the world. Everyone in my immediate family--including both the one into which I was born and the one my man and I have created--is here. We're a perfect dozen: the cookie-baker in me just loves that!

In the past 39 years, I've fought with my family. I've fought for them and wrestled with the Lord over them...just enough to know: for this and every birthday, they're all I want. They're the very best of what I have.

There were never any guarantees, and there still aren't. Every day we have is a gift. To know, feel, and really rejoice in it is another.

Mom and Clementine

My Dad, My Brother, and Chip

My Brother's Wife Sarah (and the godmother of all my children) with Chip

My Nephew CJ (AKA Evel Knievel)

Dad and Charleigh

16 comments:

  1. Love this! Happy Birthday to you my sweet friend! I feel the exact same way about my clan. They are all I need.

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    1. Thank you, Janie, and yes: I know you know. Your family is super precious, too.

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  2. Happy birthday, I love how you love, all those family members of yours should feel so blessed by the love you give to them.

    This is all the Lord ever asked of us....

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  3. What a wonderful way to encapuslate evrything that our birthdays should mean. I wish you every joy imaginable on your birthday and am thankful that I am able to call you friend! Best wishes for many,many more!

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    1. Thank you, Anita! I'm thankful to call you friend, too!

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  4. oh, love. i adore your family so fiercely just from the pictures (and word pictures). they seem so very YOU.

    such a gift, this life. happiest belated thirty-ninth.

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    1. (((Nic))) You're right on time, actually; it's today! (We celebrated early.)

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  5. Happiest of Birthdays! You are so so blessed, and I love how you share it with us. Encouragement! (that will only make sense if you saw Couples Therapy...and don't see it if you haven't. The only funny thing about that train wreck of a movie is the phrase, "ENCOURAGEMENT!")
    xoxox

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    1. Seems like we watched that movie, but I remember nothing about it, so I'm guessing you're right about its not being very good. :/ Love you!

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  6. Happy birthday! What a year you have had! When you wrote about fighting for/wrestling the Lord for you family - and then how they are all you want - yes.
    Praying that this next year is overflowing with blessings.

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  7. Happy birthday, Brandee! I turn 39 on Monday, so I'm joining you. Wow, I hadn't realized all that you and your family had gone through this year. Whew. Glad that things are feeling calmer now. Your Cade looks so much older than the last photos I remember from stopping by here at other times. They grow up fast, huh?

    Enjoy a relaxing evening tonight,
    Jennifer Dougan
    www.jenniferdougan.com

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    1. Thank you, Dear Jennifer. I love dearly your voice in this place, and Happy Birthday to you, as well! And yes about my Cade; he did that thing where he fell off the cliff into teendom, and it was more sudden than I'd reckoned or supposed.

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  8. Birthdays with family are my favorite, too. Thanking God with you for such a blessed day!!!

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