Dominic: A Belated Birthday Blog

My son, Dominic, turned 24 on February 27. Although he is my favorite son in the whole world, here I am, posting his birthday blog more than a month late! It's wrong to be that busy. Or distracted. (I feel really bad about it, but I did have a broken ankle, you know.)

I swear, every single day that has passed since February 27, I have thought, I will do Dj's birthday blog today. (It is true, isn't it, that it's the thought that counts?)

Well, today is finally the day...

Here's Dominic with his girlfriend, Sydney (whose birthday was also in February). The picture was not taken on their birthdays. It was, however, taken at the restaurant where we usually go for family birthday celebrations -- Monterrey.


(Dominic and Sydney, August 2010)


And this is a picture I took of a paper I found recently with some stuff my dad had saved.




Dj wrote it for a school assignment entitled, "The Worst Thing That Ever Happened To Me," when he was in second or third grade. (If you can read it, you will be able to see what it has to do with his birthday, and you won't have to ask.)

You'd think that it must be a pretty awful life that would cause someone to say that the worst thing that ever happened to him was the day he was born, wouldn't you?

But I don't believe that's where Dj was going with his opening line...With a birth experience like his, things would have to get better! To be honest, his Birth Day was one of the worst things that ever happened to me, too. We thought we were losing our baby. But after a [very scary] month spent in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, we brought him home and commenced living happily ever after, pretty much. For which I am eternally thankful to God!

As for that other stuff -- about him not being very cute and his sister hiding him -- The two were not related. First, he was very cute. It just doesn't look like it in all those pictures we have where his hair had been shaved off in patches, with needles and tubes (or "toobs") stuck all over his little body. As for the hiding part...It was a game in which Dj was a very enthusiastic participant; Meagan would very carefully place him behind a chair or in a basket of stuffed animals, and I would be able to locate him by his shrieks of delight.

(Oh -- And she didn't actually drop him off the foot of the bed...She just sort of let him fall while she was talking to me. One time.)


And this is one of my very favorite pictures of Dominic of all time -- I love to see his smile and hear his laugh. I probably would still feel that way, even if he'd had a less frightening beginning. But I will never forget that for a few weeks, I felt as though I might never smile or laugh again...




Of course, I have. A lot. And many times because of my wonderful and very funny son.

Life is good and I am blessed.

I love you, Dj. Happy Birthday every day!