In 2 1/2 weeks it will be June 10, 2007. Noah's birthday. As it quickly approaches, I'm getting sad...7 months was just way too short! 5 1/2 of those being in TCH (not that that place is bad, the nurses ROCK and we'd visit every day if we were into emotional torture...). I can't even begin to imagine what he's doing in Heaven. I wish Jesus would come back soon so I could be in Heaven, too. I know it's selfish because maybe many of you don't want Him to return until you accomplish 'x', but, honestly, I don't want to wait until I'm 100 to see Jesus, or Noah for that matter!

I've been thinking of how we will remember Noah on his birthday this year...Jason and Em and I are for sure going to celebrate and remember him, as we do daily. Em wants cake like any 4.75 year old should! It's a little too late to swing what I want to do, so next year will be the beginning of that, Lord willing, but I think this year, on June 10th, we'll have a 'bring your own picnic' park extravaganza with lots of kids, kites, frisbees, etc, for whoever wants to show up. We've been wanting to have a big party for over a year now, anyway, so what better time to celebrate!? I'll post more details for locals later...

Anyway, I have a few other ideas of how I want to remember Noah's birthday, and, if others are wanting a way to do that, here are my thoughts...First, a bunch of my friends and I are growing our hair out in honor of Noah for 'Locks for Love'. (If you want to grow it out and do it in honor of someone you love, go for it, the more the merrier!) If we have an extra 10 inches by January 12th, 2008, then we'll all go get cuts that day. I'll post a picture of our 'before' hair later. Then, the fund that we originally set up to help offset costs of lab work and out of network doctors has been on my heart a lot lately. We have been able to reconcile some of those costs and there is some left over. We want to set up a two-fold purpose for that fund in memory of Noah that will keep giving as long as money is there...We want to give scholarships to nursing students since nurses ROCK! AND, I'm not sure if you knew this or not, but, Noah only smiled once, maybe twice, but both times in his sleep. He never smiled consciously...SO, since he's smiling all the time now, we want to consistently send money to 'Operation Smile' which is an organization that provides cleft palette surgery to children in 3rd world countries for only $250 a surgery! A kid can breathe and eat and drink AND SMILE after one of these surgeries! We love missions and wanted to do something medical that made a difference, so thought this was a good fit...

Finally, as I've said previously, Jason, my little sister, and 3 girlfriends were present for Noah's birth. One friend coached me, one had the camera and the other had the video camera...I've never watched the video...With a brand new box of deluxe lotion coated Puffs tissues, I think that's how I'll privately close out June 1oth.

*FYI, the Mother's Day service is posted under 'messages' now at www.redrockschurch.com Keep in mind I'm squinting because the lights were so bright and I'm not a big fan of hand held microphones, I'm a hand talker:)...Alright, I gotta go to bed...I'm slipping into hospital hours here...