Reagan Update...Happy Mother's Day!!!

Dear Friends,
The last few days for Reagan have been great! She is continuing to grow bigger and stronger with each passing day and we are very grateful for her progress! Thank you all for continuing to pray. We still have around 6 weeks before Reagan will come home and she needs to continue to grow without any major setbacks, so please pray that her feeds will continue to go well and that she will be able to breathe room air only in the very near future. She seems to be progressing to that point quickly, so lets thank God for her progress and continue to ask for His divine hand to be over her to help her with her growth and development. She weighed in at 2 lbs and 15 ozs. today and should hit the 3 lb mark very soon!!! It is hard to believe that she has more than doubled in weight..Thank you Lord for helping her to this point and for giving us the grace, patience and peace to deal with each passing day.

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!!! Without you, the rest of us wouldn't be here! I have three special moms that I would like to especially thank today...They are in no particular order... My mom (Carolyn)... My wife (Amy)... and My Mother-in-law (Connie).

Mom,
Thank you for having me and for helping me each second of my life to grow into the person that I am today. Thank you, when given choices that would affect my life for many years, for making choices for me that would be the very best, even if I did not like them at the time. Thank you for loving me through all the phases of life as well as for letting me "bend your ear" as the obsessive compulsive child I was! Thanks for always making sure that I made it to church on Sunday, Wednesday, and whenever there was a church function that I could attend. Most of all, thank you for helping me to grow to know and accept Jesus at an early age. He has made all the difference in my life and I credit you for showing me love as a child so that I could understand how much I am loved by God! I'm sure that times were not always easy when I was a child and that you faced many struggles of which, I was never aware. Thank you for giving me a peaceful childhood in which I could grow up without the fears that many children feel today. Thank you for helping me to feel secure each day and for letting me sleep on the floor in your room when I was scared at night! Thank you for raising me in an environment where the expectations were great, but the love and selfless motivation behind the expectations was even greater. Thank you for the discipline that I received as a child (often administered by dad :) ) as I feel that it helped provide a more peaceful existence within our family and set boundaries for what was acceptable and what was not. I plan to do the same with Reagan. Thank you for always providing a stable family environment in which I could grow up to know that my mom and dad were committed to each other, no matter what life threw at them. Thank you for always being fair with David and I. Thank you for supporting our home as Dad worked so that he could provide for us! Thank you for your love! Love is such a powerful expression that I wish more children could feel. I think it is hard for many kids that don't feel a parent's love to understand God's love for them. I think that God is very misunderstood and that if people knew just how much God loves them, they would want to live their lives to serve Him. So, thanks for showing me God's love. Anyway, just know that you are loved and appreciated on this Mother's Day and that I am thankful for all that you have done for me. May you have a wonderful year and again, thanks for everything!

Amy,
I was not expecting to be able to celebrate Mother's Day this year as Reagan was not due to make her appearance until late June...But, God had other plans and I am thankful for the opportunity to wish you a happy Mother's Day. You are a wonderful wife, friend, and now, Mommy!!! I always knew that you would be a fabulous mother and that is one of many reasons that I married you. You have been an inspiration to many by your attitude during the early birth and subsequent days of Reagan's life. Thank you for having a good attitude throughout this process, understanding the risks, yet choosing to rely on God's Sovereignty and help. It has not been an easy journey for you or for me except for the fact that God has been with us, and knowing that has made all the difference. I feel that we both decided to trust God's will early in this situation and to believe Him for something that was unknown to us. Thank you for making that choice with me not to blame God, but to be grateful each day, hour, minute, and second for Reagan's progress and to see the beauty that God had to show us as we chose to trust in Him. I remember you saying that you had wondered at one time why this had happened to us, and then you said your thought changed quickly to "why not us?" Thoughts are human sometimes, but I appreciate you rationally looking at things and agreeing that God would not give us something that He had not prepared us for. I cannot imagine what you dealt with during the early days of Reagan's birth, knowing what you know from your work experiences, but I am grateful for your Godly reaction to the circumstances. You are and will be an excellent mother! I look forward to raising Reagan with you! She will be home before you know it, playing with all her little friends (if we ever let her out of the house :) ) I love you and am proud of you!

Connie (Nana),
Although you are not my biological mother, I wanted to tell you thank you for being such a great mother-in-law. Many people complain about their mothers-in-law but I have no complaints. Thank you for your caring attitude toward your family and for always being willing to help when needed. Thank you for being by Amy's side as much as you were able to during the early days of Reagan's birth. It would have been hard to make it without your help and I am grateful for you and for your willingness to help lighten our burden. You are a blessing to my life as well as Amy's and I appreciate you. Thank you for helping to raise Amy into the person that she is today. You can read many of the things that I said about my mom and I'm sure the same could be said for you. You are loved on this Mother's Day!

To all you other moms out there...just know that you are appreciated. Thank you for the sacrifices that you make each day for your kids. My mom said something to me the other day that made a lot of sense. She was telling me about a compliment someone had paid her about raising me (I think they were probably getting me confused with David :) ). Her reaction to the compliment was very humble and she basically said that she did all that she knew to do and laid the best foundation that she could and then she allowed God to fill in the cracks. I know as a father that I will not be perfect, but I will allow God to mold me into the father that He wants for me to be. I will rely on Him to help my child to grow into the person that He wants her to be and will ask Him to fill in any areas in her life that are deficient. I'm sure glad that I don't have to be a perfect parent, but just teachable and open to hear from God. May God bless you all this Mother's Day!

You all are loved!

Robert