I can’t believe Brayden turned 7 yesterday! I would have posted yesterday but between his birthday treat and not feeling so great I wasn’t on here much! I figure that’s a good enough reason to post the next day instead! 🙂 So, wow, 7! Being our oldest, we have definitely learned A LOT about parenting. We have learned how to be advocates for our children – particularly when we were going through the process of getting an Autism diagnosis. I recently posted Brayden’s Autism story. My entire birth experience and first few years parenting Brayden have been very humbling from my “all natural birth plan” turning into an unexpected c-section, breastfeeding efforts proving to be unsuccessful after 2 weeks, and attachment parenting? He didn’t even like to be held! Everything I “thought” of parenting and actually parenting him were totally opposite experiences! You know what I learned? It’s OK! All children are different – as we have definitely learned as all 3 of ours have been parented differently as well! But God has always blessed us with the resources (and love) that we needed to both parent and advocate for Brayden (and the other two children as well)!

What a blessing Brayden is to our family. It has been absolutely amazing watching him grow. There have been challenges along the way followed by great triumphs – and sometimes followed by minor setbacks like his sleeping with his light on once again. Each accomplishment is a blessing, though, and I am just in awe watching him grow. He has such an amazing love for God and talks about Him all the time! There are times when I’m not feeling so great, and he reminds me how much God loves us! It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it! In fact, tomorrow he has his last Praise Dance practice from a class he took at our homeschool co-op before a performance they are going to do this weekend. We missed a lot of days of co-op unfortunately, so I was surprised he was invited to participate. When she shared how she could just see God’s love radiate through him during their class I almost started bawling my eyes out! We are truly so blessed. He prays for us when he wakes up and before bed. My heart broke a little when he was diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, and God has not only restored my joy but has blessed us in so many ways through Brayden!