Azalea's 1st birthday!

... it's 1:15 am and my birthday girl just fell asleep for the night.

It's so easy to reminisce about the moments leading up to her birth and the days following her arrival into my world. It was so beautiful. I remember sitting up in the recovery room moments after my c-section and asking Ash if I could hold her. I remember kissing her and being sooooo overjoyed. I remember attempting to nurse her for the very first time and puking moments after from all the anesthesia. I remember the pain of recovery & how every time she was brought into the room for me to nurse her, how I would just stare at her and tell her how much I loved her. I remember when she had an aggressive form of jaundice and had to stay under the yellow lights in the nursery for days and how I paced the floor trying to catch a glimpse of her until a nurse took me in to see her. I remember cherishing the struggle of breastfeeding because I didn't have that opportunity with Addi. I remember crying because everything and everywhere hurt. I remember looking at her & telling myself that it was all more than worth it. I remember swaddling her & smelling her & rocking her on the rocking chair & thinking to myself soon she will be 1...& 2...& 3... and here we are, on her birth day, exactly one year later... and I am still so overjoyed that she is a part of my world. I love her more and more with each second that passes & thank God for blessing me with her. He sure knows the desires on my heart because she is everything and more than I could have ever imagined my little girl to be!

I almost still can't believe she is now a 1 year old! Where did this past year go? Oh I know... it went to me being a supermom! Im not one to brag about my mothering capabilities, but the things I've endured this past year, I can truthfully say that even I have impressed MYSELF! :)

I have learned many things this past year and some are:

-Even if it hurts, it doesn't mean that something is wrong. Pain occurs, healing follows.
-Slow and steady wins the race.
-Don't give up - If something is for me, no one can take it away from me because its MINE.
-In everything, PRAY.
-I am slowing becoming like the "women" in my family & I am starting to understand them more.
-Trust in God, not in man. Man WILL fail me... God will not!