Didn't you just love having Christmas fall on a Sunday this year? I thought it was just perfect. To spend the day in the Lord's house celebrating His gift to the world, sharing fellowship with other believers, telling others about the gift of salvation that we celebrate at Christmas time. It was a wonderful blessing. Of course, we enjoyed all the regular trappings of the season, food, family, gifts. It was wonderful. We are truly blessed. Having Christmas fall on a Sunday reminded me of a very long and not especially fun Christmas a few years ago. The last time Christmas Day fell on a Sunday, I too was great with child. Josh was 3, Joy was almost 2, and we were expecting our third child. After we had Joy, our little family had one boy and one girl. We had the best of both worlds and I was content. But just before Joy turned 1, my heart felt that same ache. I wanted another little one. I prayed that God would bless us again with a baby. Now, Josh was God's idea, not ours. Joy, on the other hand, was the express wish of my parents who wanted a grand-daughter. But, this baby, this baby I entreated the Lord for. I would have named him Samuel if that weren't Josh's middle name because Hudson was the child I prayed for.
What does all that have to do with Christmas? Well, I'm getting to that.
None of my pregnancies were easy. I was desperately sick with all of them, but this pregnancy was really trying. Instead of getting past the morning sickness stage, it continued on until the day after delivery. As an added bonus, I started having contractions around the 32-33 week mark. I tried to ignore them, that didn't work out well. Joey and I would spend hours in triage only to have them tell me, "Yes, you're in labor. Come back if it gets really bad." It was a long December to say the least. We spent all of our anniversary in the hospital. Then, Christmas morning came. It was a beautiful Sunday. We got the kids ready and headed to church. I was so sick, Joey had to pull the van over several times. I was ready to teach Sunday School and play the piano for both services, but my dad (a.k.a. Pastor) took one look at me and told Joey to take me straight to the hospital. I tried to argue, that didn't work out well either.
I was excited. Having a Christmas baby would be fun, right? I was scheduled to be induced five days later so I figured they would let me go ahead and have the baby that day. It didn't work out quite like I planned. Instead, Joey, the kids and I spent our Christmas Day at the hospital. Joey got the kids Christmas dinner in the cafeteria and they took naps on my bed. It was a long Christmas. And we left without what I really wanted for Christmas that year, the baby I had prayed for.
I had to wait five very long days. It was worth the wait. Hudson is so much fun. He loves life. He was our first child who actually played with toys. He is a lot of fun to teach in school. He makes our house exciting (a.k.a. loud).
Every year, we celebrate Hudson's birthday along with New Year's. Most of the time people don't like combining their birthday with another celebration, but Hudson looks forward to it as soon as the snow begins to fall in October. He knows the routine by now. We have to have snow, then we get a Christmas tree, then we have Christmas, then we burn the tree and shoot off fireworks. (this is our New Year's tradition) For Hudson, bonfires and fireworks are meant for his birthday. And what a way to celebrate for this little boy who has blessed our family in such a tremendous way! Happy 6th Birthday, Hudson Taylor!
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