This Sunday we celebrated Mother’s Day. We also celebrated our Abbey’s birthday! Her birthday doesn’t always land on Mother’s Day but this year it happened to once again, and what an extra special celebration it was for all of us. You see, this year wasn’t just any birthday year for Abbey. This was the year of her 18^thbirthday. 

18 years ago, I went into labor on the morning of my daughter’s due date and by the night’s end our baby girl had made her way into this world. Before the doctor had been able to begin the planned induction that day, we found ourselves calling to say that contractions had already begun. Then we spent most of the day at home laboring until the evening when contractions suddenly increased in intensity and frequency. We rushed to the hospital, thankfully only minutes from where we lived at the time, and both my daughter and I were fitted with monitors. Our doctor had known beforehand that Abbey’s umbilical cord was wrapped not once but twice around her neck, and this had been part of the reason for the induction. We knew that our baby girl needed to be closely monitored, but with naturally occurring contractions we had not been told that we should come any earlier than we had. Some of the scariest moments of my life followed with each beep of my daughter’s monitor, alerting us to the stress that she was enduring within. I felt completely helpless. When Abbey was born the doctor carefully unwound the cord as I was told to stop pushing, and immediately after the specialty team administered oxygen to her. To this day we do not know if this was a part of the cause of our daughter’s delays, but one thing we do know is this, that on that day 18 years ago we were given a precious gift from God.

Despite all of the hard that we have been through on this journey with special needs, there is no denying that Abbey is my most precious Mother’s Day gift. Our fun-loving spunky girl was meant to make her mark on this world. She is a ray of sunshine to all those around her. Sometimes warming hearts that have grown cold, sometimes casting light on the things that must be told, and sometimes burning with an intensity that can’t be easily controlled, but always shining brightly for the world to behold. 

Happy 18^th Birthday to my sweet spunky girl, Abbey!!