Dear Josh

Ahhh. Josh. My wonderful, intelligent, funny, slightly eccentric third son. Today you are 25 years old and you have brought so much joy and laughter into our household that I cannot imagine what life would have been like had you not made your appearance.

You were the easiest of all my births. My water had broken in the morning, so they told me I had to come to the hospital. I sat in there and was bored most of the day because contractions didn't start. I remember I was chatting away with my sister on the phone late in the afternoon and complaining because nothing was happening. She called back about 2 hours later for an update and you were already born! Back then (I don't know if they still do today) babies are given an apgar test right after birth. It checks breathing, heart rate, muscle tone, reflexes and skin color. The rating is on a scale of 1 to 10 and I have been told that only doctor's children ever get a 10 rating. Well guess what? You were given a 10! We were quite the proud parents of our perfect son!

During my pregnancy, we debated on a name for you. I had always loved the name Josh and really wanted to go with it and Dad had no objections. Of course, the normal thing to do was to name you Joshua, but I said that we never intended to call you Joshua so why don't we just name you Josh. That is what we did and I have never regretted it and hopefully you haven't gotten too tired of telling everyone that your given name is "Josh" not "Joshua."

You were an easy baby and tolerated your older brothers shinagins well. Shawn would tote you all over the house and Jay would hug you way too tight, but you just accepted everything as the norm. I could tell right from the beginning that you had a much more laid-back personality than your two brothers. You weren't as aggressive and didn't try to test the boundaries of what you could and could not do. Imagine my surprise and delight when after a nap (this was when you were old enough to talk) you actually called to me and asked if it was okay to get up.

As a baby you did everything pretty much right on schedule. You were soon crawling, then walking and then talking. I remember when you were first learning to talk, Shawn was too hard a word for you to say, so you simply made up your own word and called him "Dula." We all got a good laugh over that. One other thing I learned early on was that you do not like a lot of motion. When you were about 8 months old, I took you boys to Safe Harbor Park. While Shawn and Jay played on the slide and ran around, I plopped you in the baby swing. I gave you a nice firm push and you screamed. I thought you must have gotten a bee sting or something, but soon I realized that you were terrified! I joked that you were the first baby I every met that didn't like to be pushed in a swing. You were really old before you ever swung in a swing properly and to this day, you don't enjoy high motion rides.

When you were little, I had a job typesetting at home. I would barricade you from getting to me at the computer by pushing a sofa between you and me. Usually you were pretty good about it, but sometimes you would just sit on your side of the sofa and cry. I always felt really bad when this happened and often recruited Grandma Denlinger to keep you while I typed. You loved spending time with her and Grandpa at their house.

By the time you were two, Shawn and Jay were both in school so you and I spent a lot of time together. Twice a week we would head up to Ephrata where I dropped off my finished manuscripts and picked up new ones to type. You would be in your car seat in the back and when we exited Route 30 and started on to 222, we drove over rumble strips. Every single time you would say "what's that?" I would always say "rumble strips" and you would repeat "umble stips" quietly to yourself. I always expected that sometime you would identify them as rumble strips when we passed over them, but you never did. I think it eventually got to be a game between you and me, because you actually knew what they were, but you just wanted to ask and hear me say "rumble strips."

You started school and did pretty well. I always said about you, that it might take you a little longer to learn how to do something than that of your peers, but that once you did learn it, you usually did it better than anyone else :) Another area that you excelled in when you were in grade school was sports. You were naturally gifted in athletics and we enrolled you in Little League. I remember one year your team went to the playoffs and you were the leadoff hitter. Every time you were up you slammed the ball somewhere, and I think hit a couple of homeruns. The game was close and in the last inning you came up to bat again. Some parents of a boy on the other team were sitting behind me and dad and they didn't know that you were our son. When you came up to bat, the dad  said, "oh no, not this kid again!"

Your high school years were pretty uneventful. You grew into a mature, easy-going, likeable, fun guy. You had good friends and you enjoyed FFA and excelled in it. I think FFA really gave you confidence that carried over into all parts of your life. Bible quizzing was a big part of those years as well and you were awesome at that. We had so much fun learning the material and I was so proud of  your achievements as an all-star quizzer many times.

You accepted Jesus as a child and it has been a blessing to watch you mature in your Christian faith. I appreciate your dedication to church and especially to the young adult class. You have willingly taken on jobs at church and you continue to amaze me sometimes with your hidden talents. It has also been rewarding to see how you continued to keep Bible quizzing a part of your life by being a judge/quiz master.

Most of your life is still ahead of you and I have no doubt that God has a lot of blessings in store for you and I am excited to see how your future unfolds. Thank you for being that down-to-earth, hard-working, dependable, wonderful guy that we all love.

Josh Andrew Lehman, I am so blessed to call you my son.

Love,

Mom

A GRAND Old Time!

We had a full house this past weekend as three grandchildren arrived on Friday afternoon and stayed until Sunday afternoon. Kristen has made it a tradition to attend a scrapbooking weekend in January and we have the pleasure of keeping the children as it would be impossible for Jay to handle both the children and his work.

They burst into the house with smiles and energy plus and we enjoyed a busyness in the ensuing 48 hours that only comes when you have small children living with you. Here are some of the highlights of our time spent together:

• The toothy grin of Mark as he toddles around and mischievously opens and shuts cupboards and drawers and "helps" me load and unload the dishwasher. He was fascinated with our propane heaters and would approach them and say "HHHH" (hot). He is not saying any words but he makes his needs and wants known by very loud and persistent grunting :)  He was not very impressed with the pack-n-play I had set up in the basement for him to sleep, but by the end of the weekend he had resigned himself to it.
• Lydia is a constant little chatterbox and busybody. She is always moving and one of the funniest things she did was jump in the walker I have for Awstin and zoom around the kitchen and living room. Alexis saw how much fun it was and wanted to be a part of it and they ended up fighting over who got to be in it. I managed to get some video of it but I missed the part where Lydia slams into Mark's highchair (with Mark sitting in it) and he jumps and looks around to see what hit him and then giggles and laughs at her. Lydia also wasn't a big fan of Jeremy. We told her that Jeremy was coming down to see Megan and she stated emphatically, "I don't like eremy." Alexis said, "why don't you like him? He is a really nice guy." Lydia replied, "he scary." When he did arrive, she refused to look at him. On Sunday at church, I had gotten her coat and handed it to her and started to walk back into the auditorium to Alexis. I thought that she was following me, but when I turned around she was standing in the midst of people with her coat over her head. I went back to her and when I lifted the coat, she was crying. Apparently, she lost sight of me and when all she saw was strange people, she just put her coat over her head so she couldn't see anyone and cried.
• Alexis loves to help in any way she can. While Lydia and Mark slept on Saturday afternoon she and I baked a birthday cake for Steve and then I let her decorate it all by herself. She had so much fun and was so proud of her finished result. She is a little girl with a huge imagination. I love to play with her and listen to her pretend. Some of her favorite things to play are store, farming and house. The things she comes up with just make me laugh. She is also really advanced with her motor skills and will sit and color a picture for a long time and stays in the lines beautifully. She knows the whole alphabet and can write most of the letters and numbers. She also loves to play games on my computer and Lydia will sit on the chair with her and watch as Alexis plays one game and then another.

The first night it was a little difficult to get Alexis and Lydia persuaded to go to bed so Steve  watched nursery rhyme songs with them on his computer until they were really tired. It was so cute because they were both yawning but neither of them wanted to stop and kept insisting that they weren't tired at all!

It was a wonderful, busy and grand weekend and when Kristen came to pick them up on Sunday, they were happy to go home and we were happy to see them go :)  But, oh what a wonderful time we had. I am just so grateful that I get to experience this amazing thing called grand parenting.

Cutie Pie :)

I call him "little Jay"

Two on one seat works just fine



 

Two tired little girls



Sleeping at last :)

 

Alexis "decorating" Grandpa's cake

Lydia in the walker with Alexis chasing

Happy Birthday Steve!

Today is Steve's 53rd birthday. Some days I can't believe that we are both several years past fifty, but then when I look at us and at our children I realize that there is no denying it.

Obviously, I don't know a whole lot about Steve's birth and childhood because I wasn't there, but I have been told that he was born during a blizzard. I believe his dad dropped his mom off at the hospital in the middle of the storm and by the time he fought his way back home through the snow, the hospital was on the phone and told him that he had a son who would be a "future football player." Well, the football player prediction didn't come true, but I can see why the doctor predicted it :)

I first met Steve in the second semester of my senior year in high school. We had attended LMH together since he came as a sophomore, but our paths had never crossed and I really had no idea that he existed. We sat next to each other in an English class and I soon learned a little about him. I found out that he was likeable, funny, mischievous, and absolutely terrible in English. He also had amazing persuasion skills and deftly recruited my help so he could get a passing grade in the class. Secretly, I thought he was pretty good-looking too.

We also had a study hall together that last semester and between the English class and study hall, we got to be pretty good friends. As the semester continued, those two classes became my favorite because Steve was in them. I was pretty sure he liked me, but how does one ever tell? When the year ended and we graduated and said good-bye, I thought that was probably the last I would ever see of Steve Lehman. A week after graduation, I received a phone call from him asking me for a date. I was surprised and delighted. I remember my mom asking, "who is he?" and I replied, "just a really nice guy that I met in school."

I guess one could say that the rest is history but that is pretty cliché. A lot of milestones, joys, heartaches, laughter, and tears goes into that so-called "history." Every person and every couple have their own story to tell and each one's is unique to them. We are no different. However, over the years, I have realized  how fortunate I am to have my life intertwined with this man. He is still likeable, funny and mischievous. He is also hard-working, dependable and incredibly innovative. I have sometimes despaired of all the ideas and crazy plans that he has come up with. I usually say "no, no, no, it will never work."  Often I am right, but once in a while he masterminds something that is ingenious. I was very skeptical about his idea for a composting facility and at one time even thought it was downright ridiculous and silly but this has proved to be exceeding even his expectations. One thing for sure about Steve is that he is not afraid to try again when something fails. It has taken me many years, but I now realize that this is probably one of his biggest attributes and I am slowly becoming more appreciative of his unfailing optimism.

As I listen and read about all the horrible pitfalls that surround boys and men in this day and age it makes me realize how lucky I am to have a man that has been able to avoid the addiction of alcohol, porn, and gambling, and who has been faithful to me. He is a dedicated Christian who loves the Lord and underneath his sometimes gruff exterior has an incredibly soft heart for his family and friends and also for those who are less fortunate.

I am truly blessed to call this man my husband. Happy birthday Steve! I love you!

PS. We had Jay and Kristen's children this weekend because Kristen was with a group of ladies scrapbooking. I left Alexis decorate Grandpa's birthday cake. She had a blast and as you can see overdid it on the candy. We scraped most of it off before we ate it :) Anyway, we celebrated Steve's birthday Saturday evening. Shawn and Awstin joined us for the party as Melissa was also scrapbooking. Here are a couple of pictures and a video.

 

 

Dear Shawn

Today you are 31 years old. Can it really be? Thirty-one years is a long time, but if I close my eyes I can see that tiny baby boy that dad and I brought home from the hospital and it seems like yesterday. We were so excited and proud!

On the day before you were born, we had planned to go to the Harrisburg Farm Show with Gene & Rhoda and Carrie. You were still 2 weeks away from your due date and I really didn't give it a thought that you might come early. However, when I woke up that morning, things didn't feel "right" and so we canceled our plans to go to the Farm Show. It was a good thing we did, because later that afternoon we headed to the hospital and you were born early the next morning.  It was love at first sight and we named you Shawn Deron. Dad had worked for a farmer who had a son named Shawn and he always told me that if we had a little boy he wanted to name him Shawn. He got no argument from me, because I personally love the name as well. I wanted your middle name to start with a D since my maiden name was Denlinger and eventually we settled on Deron.

Dad and I didn't know a whole lot about babies but that didn't matter to you. You were such a contented and happy little guy that you made our job easy. I remember how your huge brown eyes would follow me wherever I went. I would put you in your little seat on the kitchen table and you would watch me. If I left the room, when I came back your eyes were glued to where you had last seen me and you were patiently waiting for me to return. When I appeared, you greeted me with a big smile.

You talked so early and your pronunciation was perfect. At a little over a year old your vocabulary was amazing. I remember it was hard to keep you quiet in church, because you didn't understand the concept of whispering and you just talked out loud about everything you saw. Some of the things you said could be kind of embarrassing, like the time you exclaimed loudly in church, "I just passed gas!"

You loved riding along with your daddy in the big truck and you soon learned how to operate and "fix"  machinery as well. Many a time, you would come in from the shop covered from head to toe with dirt and grease because you were "helping" dad repair something. At around five years of age, you started mowing the grass and soon you were driving tractors, skid loaders, cars, and by twelve years old you could even drive the manure truck!

Sometimes I look back on those times, and wonder that we survived them without serious mishap. Remember the time the lawn mower caught fire while you were mowing and I was in the shower? You came screaming into the house and to the bathroom door. I debated about running out of the house stark naked, but decided that since you were obviously okay, whatever the problem was could wait until I threw on some clothes. Thankfully Grandpa also heard the commotion and had already come up to help before I got there. I'm sure you also remember the time your jeans caught fire from a spark when Dad was welding and before you or he realized it, you had a very severe burn on your leg. I am so thankful it wasn't any worse, but I know you have a nasty scar from that.

One word I would use to describe you is dependable. You were such a hard worker and if there was something to be done you did it. As the oldest child, you were so helpful with your siblings. I always felt comfortable leaving you in charge if Dad and I went away and left you children alone. I know that your brothers and sister looked up to you and I want to thank you for being such a good example to them.

I don't think you ever particularly cared for school, but you didn't complain. You did well enough and probably could have done better if you had really wanted to. You endured those long bus rides and it was a wonderful day when you got your driver's license. It opened up a whole new world and made life easier for all of us. You were able to chauffeur your siblings to school and best of all you could legally drive the big trucks on the road.

Before I had children, I always used to dread the teen years, but I want to thank you for making them easy. You were a sensitive and caring teenager who didn't get into trouble and who was a lot of fun to be around. You joined the church, made good Christian friends and enjoyed having a good time, but you always took being a Christian seriously. I always felt that you made good choices and for that I am extremely grateful.

The years flew by and you were still in high school when you started dated Melissa. In a few short years you were married and together you began attending Living Light Mennonite Church. Both of you bring a lot of talents and gifts to the congregation and I know that they are appreciative of your commitment to them.

And now you are the daddy of an adorable, sweet little boy. You and Melissa are wonderful parents and I have loved watching you interact with Awstin as you adjusted to having a baby in the family. My wish for you, is that your son will bring as much happiness into your life as you did to mine.

I am so blessed to call you my son.

Love,

Mom