Four years ago today, everything changed. The Little One pushed his way into the world, hijacking our lives and our hearts. I spent a good part of those first few weeks crying, usually when I set eyes upon the little guy, but often while watching random television commercials as well. Officially, I chalk it up to the hormones that were raging around my body, but there’s also a big part of me that believes I just couldn’t get over our great fortune, that we’d finally, finally managed to have a child.

I was almost at a loss, really. After nine years of trying, failing, trying again, suffering, agonizing, here we were. One epidural, four units of blood and four units of plasma later (because god forbid I should have an easy, uneventful birth with no nearly fatal surprises), the race was suddenly over. And it was strange. Strange that everything we’d been through was now behind us, that we were no longer struggling to achieve what so many others around us had achieved with relative ease. Strange that the battle that had been with us constantly, the struggle that had been the very center of our lives, was now a moot issue. I can’t even begin to describe how that felt, to realize that we no longer had to deal with this all-consuming saga that seemingly affected every aspect of our lives, every decision we had to make. Every. Single. One.

Not only had we finally succeeded, but with the Little One, we hit the jackpot, far surpassing our wildest dreams. We have a warm, intelligent, charming little boy with a marvelous (bordering on devilish at times – where did that came from…) sense of humor, a twinkle in his eye, and a smile that makes his whole face light up. And, while there are certainly times when we’d be happy to auction him off to the highest bidder (or perhaps pay someone to take him), we are very much aware of how truly blessed we are to have this beautiful little boy in our lives, especially today, on his fourth birthday.

We will be celebrating his birthday in pre-school on Friday. His teacher said she will make the cake and that we should bring fruit. Do appletinis qualify? If ketchup can be considered a vegetable…

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