Happy 26th Birthday Zachary Michael..

I can't believe he's 26.  I can not be the Mother of a 26 year old.  But I am...and oh so very blessed to be.  I'll never forget his birth.  I was due around the middle of the month.  But Zach wasn't ready.  I was sooo worried I'd end up in the hospital for thanksgiving.  I did not want rolled turkey and fake potatoes!  He waited...I ate a huge thanksgiving dinner...THEN later than night...not long after that huge dinner...I started having contractions.  I remember thinking I've done this before..no big deal.  I remember laying by my Mom in her bed as they continued.  I remember her finally saying we should call the hospital and see what they said.  So we did.  They asked if we'd timed them..of course we hadn't.  So we did...5 minutes apart...you had better come in!  Off we went...my sister Kris at the wheel.  The weather was horrible.  A snowstorm.  We had to pull over in the Pamida parking lot to clean the snow and ice off the windows of the car.  When we finally did arrive at the hospital...Kris decided to drive over one of those cement parking barriers...during a contraction.  It was wonderful...lol!!!  Once at the hospital things didn't take long.  I think we arrived around 2 am and my beautiful baby boy was born by quarter to five!  This was back in the day when you had to go to the delivery room yet.  I still remember laying there with this huge round mirror..and watching as he was born..seeing his little boy parts pop out and saying it's a boy.  My Mom was so worried about his pointy little head.  She still tells the story of how she saw him and thought..."but we'll still love him anyway!

Little did I know just how much my life was going to change on that blizzardy day.  Zach has been an amazing child.  Not to say we having had our moments...like in the beginning when he had colic.  Ohhh the many many trips to the ER I took with that boy.  He LOVED sports...and played them all...well.  However played them all as if he was playing football!  I loved watching him play sports.  So did my Dad..he's always sit back and watch him and comment how Zach had gotten all his talent from him!  His teachers loved him.  I remember in preschool his teacher commented on how he was quite the Casanova (no clue how to spell that, lol)..THAT  never changed.  I use to love how he was so fascinated by farm stuff.  We had an entire farm going on in our basement with houses, and barns, and sheds, and tractors.  He loved to stop at the John Deer store.  And ohhh the road trips we took to find new tractor stores that sold the little ones.  The baseball tournaments, basketball games, trip to state for football.  Yes..my life changed that day...and I am so blessed and so lucky it did!!  I can't imagine my life without that  boy.  There were other more "special" moments too...like the time the Winnebago Sheriffs office woke me up to come and get my son..or the time I had to tell the nice officer at the door that my son was asleep and not throwing beer bottles at passing cars (which he to this day swears he wasn't, so kinda gotta believe that one!), there was another knock from one day too...from a nice sheriffs, and two very pleasant city cops..informing me that my son may have a campfire in the backyard but not a BON fire.  I looked outside to see flames shooting above my house.  Seems he and his friends went around collecting the neighbors Christmas trees on their bikes and were burning them.  Ohhh and the time I came home to see cable running into the garage.  He and his buddies hauled home and old console TV they found that someone was throwing out...and hauled it home. Then ran cable from the outside box to the TV and had it working in the garage.  Ohhh there are so many many times I could write about. 

Now my son is 26.  He completed college..on his own.  He worked many jobs to do it...and did it well. He works for the department of corrections now as a social worker.  He's out buying Christmas presents as I write this for a boy who's family can't afford them, he worked for Big Brothers, and he loves his little brother with all his heart. 

My world did change 26 years ago...I am so glad God gave you to me Zach!!!  Happy Birthday Son.  I love you!

ok..not sure how I got this one in here..but I can't get it out, lol!!!!  It's not Zach..it's my Mom and Dad probably when they were 26!!!