One more week...

In just seven short days, my baby boy will turn TWO years old!

Sniff, sniff. Sob. Sniff, sniff.

It's true, though; I am already starting to get a little emotional about it all. He came home today, after spending 5 days with my Mama and Daddy, and looked even more grown up than when I left him on Friday.

AND THEN, he didn't want to give me a hug! He just looked at me and said, with such seriousness, "No, no hug Mama". As if to say, "No, sorry. I don't think I'll do that right now."

Sigh.

Lately, I've been looking back at old pictures and I came across this one.

This was Ethan and me exactly two years ago, today, and it just so happens to be my favorite pregnancy picture. At the time it was taken, Jeramie and I had no idea we were one week away from meeting a 6 pound, 5 ounce bundle of pure bliss and brokenness. We had no idea how much pain, heartbreak, and beauty we were about to experience through our child's birth.

Now, today, we are one week away from celebrating two years of life. Two years of sweet, unpromised, precious life. Two years of surviving 11 operations, and beating the odds every. single. time. Two years of crushing developmental expectations, and even rising above them. Two years of more tears, as well as more laughter, than I thought could erupt from the human soul.

Two God-given, gracious years.

Could someone just go ahead and pass the tissues?