It’s my birthday.

Though I have always LOVED my birthday, I never really appreciated the significance of it being my “birth” day until I gave birth. Now I know why H. Jackson Brown, Jr. wrote in Life’s Little Instruction Book wrote, “On your birthday, send your mom a thank-you card.”

It is just as much my mom and dad’s birthday as it is mine. I love to think about the story I always hear about the day I was born- we lived in the mountains, there was  a snowstorm, and only one other baby was born in the hospital that day. My older sister jumped three feet off the ground when telling people, “I have a baby sister! I have a baby sister!”

It was the day before Thanksgiving, and my mom and I spent our first Thanksgiving together in the hospital, while my dad and sister had Thanksgiving dinner at our church. The night they took me home from the hospital, it was freezing cold and I slept the whole night through. My mom and dad looked at each other thinking,”Wow- this baby is amazing. We are going to have it so easy with her.”

I never slept through the night again.

In fact, I remember waking up in the middle of the night and crawling into their bed when I was at least 6 years old. Maybe 7.

Every year on my son’s birthday I tell him the story of his birth, and how happy we were when he came into our lives and  how much we celebrated that day. I can only hope I get the message across to him the same way my parents have always done for me.

So happy “birth” day to my mom and dad. How thankful I am to have both of you.