Come Together 1 child to 4 in 28 days: It’s great to be Eight

Although this is a very hard blog post for me to write, I am so proud of my it is also a privilege. My baby boy Jacob is now eight years old. Words cannot express the joys that he is brought to me and Jeff these past eight years. The sad part is how fast the years flown by.

Thank heavens he still hops in bed with me every morning and wants to snuggle before going to school. And thank heavens he is still blowing me kisses as he heads off to school. But he is no longer a little boy. He is a boy.

Jake has had to deal with plenty of adversity in his young life. Before the age of three he was in Speech, Physical, and Occupational therapy. Because of my rough pregnancy they had to knock him out at three years old to fix his teeth. At five years old he had surgery on his feet and his eyes. Six months after the surgery his cognitive development took a giant leap forward. A little boy who was barely at the lowest part of the average is now at the top of his class.

Jacob is a very sensitive soul. He can get rowdy, but he is not naturally a rough person. He has an innate ability to chase the blues away and make people around him feel like a million bucks. He seems to sense when someone needs extra eencouragement.

This past fall Jake has struggled with a bully in school. For those of you who know me well you know I will fight to the ends of the earth for my kids, including the ones who are not with us yet. Thankfully the situation appears to be mostly resolved and Jacob's resilience is something to be admired.

Jake is a wonderful little companion. I can throw them in the car and run errands and go about my business and most of the time he cheerfully accompanies me without complaint. He is a great kid who rolls with it. We are fortunate.

Jacob understands the importance of what turning eight means to our faith. And he has taken very seriously the choice to be baptized. And it is his choice. I wanted to make sure he knew that he had a choice; it was not just expected of him.

For the past year, we have been reading with him all of the books of Scripture we believe in. We have read the Book of Mormon, the Bible, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. In fact, we have read through them twice. This was his request when he turned seven, because he wanted to know that these books were true in order to feel comfortable making the decision to being baptized. He loves these books. He loves hearing about the stories of the prophets and the people. His intellect and understanding of these things far surpasses where I was at his age. But the world that he is growing up in is far different from the world I grew up in. I hope that Jeff and I give him all the tools to succeed in life and help him grow spiritually as a person.

Jacob's request for his birthday was to frost sugar cookies. He's not a dessert person other than cookies. So we put a candle on top of a cookie and sang happy birthday to him. We love you so so much Jacob. Happy Birthday!