4 Years Old!

There are several things that strike me as difficult to believe this morning:

1. Yesterday, Samuel turned 4. We've gotten so used to saying 2-27-08 at every doctor's appt and prescription pick up that it is simply hard to believe that that date happened four years ago.
2. It's been a year and a half since I last posted. Geesh! I guess that can be a sign of one of two things: lots going on or nothing going on. In our case, it has most certainly been the former. We've moved to North Carolina, I've started pastoring a church here, we completed a significant home renovation & are still trying to help Samuel make the transition. Which brings me to the third thing that is difficult to believe this morning:
3. I've been up (and so has Samuel) since 1am. The most recent troubles we've been having with Samuel center around his sleep. For years he has been a great and reliable sleeper. However, in recent weeks and months, he has gone from one bad night of sleep a month, to one night a week, to now, 5 nights in a row. Last night he went to sleep at 9pm and was awake at 1am, wide awake, 'No thank you, I'm not planning on going back to sleep anytime soon' awake. And that is with the max dose of melatonin that we're allowed to give him.

So ... would you please thank God for 4 years! It's simply crazy to believe. And would you continue to pray that we would find not only our strength for today in Jesus's love and power toward us, but also our bright hope for tomorrow?

Of course, there is substantially more to tell about the last year and a half, but all that will need to wait for now. In the meantime, here's a link to some videos of Samuel. The most recent one being last week. And here's a pic of him yesterday morning, sitting proudly at the island in our kitchen: