Tomorrow our baby will be one month old. The past 4 weeks have been a blur of hospital visits, late nights, diaper changes, illness, joy, sadness, trials, and thanks. Katie’s birth plan did not go as we had hoped – this in an understatement. After having a C-Section, she spent nearly a week in a hospital with an extremely painful migraine due to a difficult epidural procedure. Thanks to our friends and family, I was able to come and go from the hospital and tend to things at home and in the office. After a few days back at home, Katie was admitted to the ER for similar symptoms only on a much greater scale. This time the doctors didn’t have an answer for what was causing Katie to have the worst pain of her life. Needless to say, we were scared. In your mind you prep yourself for the worst, but still try and stay hopeful and positive all the while praying that this isn’t as big as you fear it might be. I don’t know what this looks like for women, but for me it was like going into survival mode; personal and professional triage. It becomes clear very quickly what is important and what truly doesn’t matter in that moment. This is often very difficult for me, but somehow when you think your whole world could be turned upside down does your brain begin to itemize what is most necessary for survival. With 5 little people needing their Daddy in those moments (and their mommy), a whole lot of the world can pass without you caring a great deal of what IT thinks. While Katie was quarantined I was Mr. Mom, but I was not alone. Our church family brought us meals and prayed for us continually. I was blessed to have a night with a little more sleep due to Ronan staying with some dear friends and the other children spent a fun afternoon with another incredible family we hold dear to our hearts. We are eternally grateful for all the blessings we have been given and we will never be able to fully repay or even thank everyone for their prayers, time, meals, and generosity. Since last Thursday Katie has been home with a picc line and IV antibiotics. This Friday we were told Katie had viral meningitis and was taken off the antibiotics. Praise GOD! But our trials are not over. It is possible that she could reoccur and the headaches could come back. In the meantime, she is trying to make up for lost time with our baby – who is growing so fast. She can’t get that time back and while we have photographs of him alone, we don’t have any of Katie with him as a newborn apart from those below. While this isn’t the worse thing in the world, it makes me realize how valuable those photos would have been if the Lord had choose to take Katie from us. I am so thankful to be have more time with the person I care most about in this world. My children have the opportunity to grow up with their mother by their side, teaching, loving, hugging, and kissing them goodnight. I am not sure what GOD wants to teach us through this trial, but I know we we’re not alone in it and it is all for good (Romans 8:28). Mother’s Day is special this year and I am much more grateful than in I have been in years past to have the mother of my children here with me every day parenting, struggling, lamenting, and praising God for the wondrous work he is doing through this season of life and the trials it brings. Happy Mother’s Day! It is the most important title you will ever have and to all the women without children of their own I am thankful for you and this day is yours as well! GOD BLESS.