Happy Birthday Noah

Tomorrow is Noah's birthday. One year ago our little boy was born by emergency c-section. It's hard to believe sometimes it's already been a year. So much life slips on...so much changes in a year. And then again some things don't change. Like how much we still love our son. Not a day goes by that I don't miss him, think about him, all of them really. My children. I hate to say it because I feel guilty thinking so, but often I feel like I'm just as excited to be with my children again when I get to heaven as I am to be with my heavenly Father. Considering the circumstances though I think He understands.
It's surprising to me though, how grief after time, can change. I won't be grieving Noah tomorrow, just missing him. My sweet little boy who had his Daddy's ears and my nose. My son; who for the short time he spent here on earth touched and moved the lives of literally thousands. Thinking back on it now it still blows me away. Even after he was gone, his memory lingered, teaching people what it meant to pray, what hope and strength really looks like, and how God can show up and reveal Himself even if He doesn't answer your prayers the way you want him to. I wish I could take some of the credit for what my son managed to accomplish in his brief but amazing life, but I really had nothing to do with it. God knew what Noah would do, what he would mean to so many before he was even conceived. We just had to be willing participants.
So I'll miss my son tomorrow, just like I miss him every day, but I won't be grieving his loss. I'll be celebrating his life instead. Short though it may have been, his life changed mine forever, and I imagine several others too.
Shortly after Noah's passing, we received a card from a friend of ours, "What a beautiful difference one single life made." I saved it because it meant so much to me then, and it helps me remember now. I'm so glad Noah was ours, even if only for a short while, because his life did make a difference. To me it made all the difference in the world.