Happy Birthday!

I can’t even begin to count the ways how weird that feels to say.

You’re officially 1. How did that happen?!

I realize that’s something most parents are going to say. Time flies by and things change in the blink of an eye. You’re one today and tomorrow you’ll be five.

When I say it about you, though, it definitely has more meaning. We’ve been through a lot in the last year. It’s crazy to think we’ve done all that we’ve done. Accomplish all that we have.

I remember writing my first letter to you on the day you turned 1-month-old. I was sitting alone in the car, in a parking garage. You and your Mom were meeting with the doctors at Shriners. It was our first trip down to Greenville. I think it was one of the first times I had been alone with my thoughts, with no other distractions, since I sat in your room just looking at you when you were in the NICU.

It was one of the first times I really allowed myself to process what your life was going to be like. How different our lives were going to be.

Yeah, I had no idea!

If I could go back just 11 months, and tell myself then, how things are today, I would have never believed it.

Trips to Greenville, South Carolina. Seven different casts already. Hip surgery and two heel cord releases. Countless hours of therapy that your mom has taken you to.

You definitely haven’t had that typical first year. You’ve not been able to learn how to crawl or stand. Not had the chance to feed yourself or to chew on things as you cut teeth.

So yeah, you could say things went off script a bit. At this point, there is no script because things have never stopped changing or shifting. You have definitely kept us on our toes.

You’ve not been able to do the typical things most newborns get to do and experience, but that hasn’t even come close to stopping you!

Seriously, you just rolled onto your right side last night like it was nothing! The first time you’ve ever done it, and you moved like you’d been doing it for months.

It’s funny. I tried to expect a lot of things, but I did not expect my internal frustration of wishing you had a way, at your very young age, to understand how much you’re accomplishing. To understand just how crazy proud I am of you, and the things you’re doing.

I think that’s partially why I write these. Because if you’re reading these words 15 years from now, you’re reading these words that are written at this moment. These thoughts and these feelings right now, as I sit and type them, they’re a time capsule. A time capsule for you, so you can know just how incredible you’ve been since the day you were born.

That’s something I never want you to forget or doubt; just how incredible you are! You amaze me, and I know you’re only starting. I know you’ll move mountains in your time, son, and my favorite part is going to be sitting back watching the people who doubted or underestimated you.

You’re my superhero, always.

I love you son, Happy Birthday.

On your left.

-Dad