My Favorite Things...

Being a mom or even a parent can bring you much joy. These are a few of my favorite things that Malachi does that melts my heart, makes me laugh and sometimes even cry.

I love how he loves to "ok snuggle the house" I love that when he says "kiss the love of my life" he means me and its always on the base of my right jaw. I won't always be the love of his life I will take it while I can.  I love how small his hand is in the palm of my hand and the softness of it. He won't always be small and one day holding his hand will hold a different meaning. I love how he loves his daddy. No matter how cool mom is (or I think I am) at the end of the day, Daddy is still who he wants. 

I love to hear him sing. I love that the small mesh laundry basket that we have is used for an ambulance on our kitchen floor as he says beep, beep, beep and backing it in. I love that he expects me everyday after school to get him off the bus and the look of excitement when I am always there. I love to hear him read. Sometimes you can understand it, sometimes you can't, but he can and that's important. I love that the simple things in life like snow, he expects in June so he can play in it. I love that Malachi doesn't understand that he is different and he loves everyone the same regardless of their past. Most of all I am glad that God gave him to me. I wouldn't be the mother I am without him.

First Time Mom

I am a mother of a 7 year old boy. When I found out I was pregnant in December of 2002, I was so happy and scared all at the same time. Every mom has all these dreams and goals of what their child will be like, how they will look, what they will become. I didn't know any different. Malachi was born in July of 2003. They lost his heart beat during delivery so we had to have an emergency c-section. At that time he still was what we thought a perfect normal baby. We were so thrilled to add this precious little boy to our family. At about 3 months we could tell that he wasn't developing the way we thought he should. We waited to do anything because I thought we could be overreacting being a new mom and all. As time progressed he still couldn't sit up, he wasn't trying to crawl. He wasn't forming words. He wouldn't look at us. So we decided at this time we should have him checked out. He went to his regular check ups but our current doctor just thought he would just outgrow it. But that wasn't and isn't the case.

We finally got referred to a children's hospital three hours away. The fear sets in. The first appointment was a disaster. We had a hard time finding the hospital, we ended up being about an hour late to the appointment. The doctor still agreed to see us since we drove so far. Over the next few appointments we had a diagnosis. Not just one several. My son was diagnosed with Autism, Microcephaly , Cerebral Palsy and Severe Mental Retardation. None of them as severe as they could be, but the combination of them all left us with a what now kind of attitude. Our neuro doctor told us we will either deal with it or we won't, some parents can't. To us it wasn't an option he was our baby no matter what.
Over the next 7 years we have learned some things. We have had really long days and nights. The road hasn't been an easy one to travel. But he is still the perfect baby we wanted just in a different way now, after all I am Malachi's mom.