This is a special week. Twenty five years ago something happened that changed my life forever. I was 25 years old and Jim and I had been married for 2 years, 11 months and 14 days. A glorious time for us...we had a pretty smooth transition into marriage. We knew we wanted to have kids and planned to start trying in about the 5th year of our marriage. Ha!! We made our plans and then our life happened...
You see, nine months earlier, we discovered I was pregnant. The stick turned blue - the world turned golden.
On the morning of Sunday, June 7th I was in the midst of what I thought was full blown labor. The baby was due soon and I was ready. We went to the hospital only to discover that even though I was hurting, there hadn't been too much progress physically. The nurses had me walk around the hospital halls to see if that would get things going. It didn't. We were sent home. And I remained in labor all night and all the next day. And yes, all the next night. The pains were 5 minutes apart and STRONG. I was doing my breathing exercises with each one. I was becoming quite exhausted! Finally, on Tuesday morning we went back to the hospital and they admitted me. At 2pm on Tuesday, June 9th, after pushing for 2 hours and having an epidural so the Dr could use forceps to extract my stubborn little one, James Michael Murray was born.
Meet the person who changed me forever.
My first born. My heart. My love. My everything. My Michael.
Look at my face (yes I am so worn out, but never happier). That says it all.
When you're pregnant people tell you how a baby will change everything... how you will love them in a way you have never experienced love before. It's true.
But I know that having Michael changed who I was forever.
Gone was the selfish girl who thought everything was about her. Now I was "Mommy", and that never frightened me. I knew I had been transformed somehow into the "me" I had wanted to be. I guess it was a feeling of contentment and a realization that this was my calling.
Family is everything. We knew that adding to the family was a really amazing thing. We had Michael dedicated to the Lord during a special service at Grace Bible Chapel. This is a picture of that day.
In the pic, starting in the back row, from left to right is Jim's Dad, Harold and his Mom, Shirley. Then Shirley's parents, Jim and Lauraine Huber, and then my parents, Jack and Linda Krummel. On the seat with us is my Great Grandmother, Cora Krummel. She died a few months later.
Jim looks handsome, huh? He was a natural with babies. He was so good with Michael and I am so blessed to have Jim as the father of my boys. He gave them all of himself, and that's a lot.
They have the best parts of him.
Here is Michael and my nephew Peter. Before we had Michael (and I was determined that no one was ever going to call him "Mike", haha), Peter was the love of my life. Well, he still has a huge part of my heart. Aren't they sweet together in their matching outfits? They are still close buddy's.
A special moment with Dad. My Dad was the best Papa ever. He loved spending time with his grandchildren. He instilled in us that family is everything, after God. He was our greatest example, not perfect, but everything a Father can be. When he first looked at Michael he said, "that baby has perfect features". I'll always remember how that made me feel so proud for some reason.
Michael is about a year old here.
Michael is 2 yrs old here
So that's the story of how the love of my life changed who I was. For the better. Forever. I have learned a lot, not just from the experience of being his Mom, but from having the privilege of knowing him.
Happy 25th Birthday, my amazing son. You are a godly man of honor, integrity, and strength.
I could not be prouder of you. And I love you,
"deep as the sea and wide as the sky"
Stay tuned. In a few weeks I will tell the story of the second "Love of my Life", John Andrew.
