Birthday Girl

Leah Gabrielle is 5 years old!
When Steve and I were trying to decide on a name, we had the most difficult time. We wanted a strong beautiful name and we just couldn't agree on the perfect one. Steve liked the name Leah and I just didn't like it at the time because the name meant "weary". I didn't want her to be weary. Well, I was dealing with some spiritual issues and "weary" could have easily been applied to me. Then one day the Lord gave me the name "Gabrielle". I liked that it meant "the Lord is my strength".
But the two names together just made sense. Leah Gabrielle means..."I may be weary, but the Lord is my strength". Isaiah 40:29..."He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength". Steve and I agreed on the name and it stuck.
Another neat thing about Leah's name is that the person she is named after in the scriptures is said to have "weak eyes". To my knowledge, it just means that she wasn't as pretty as her sister. But after some time, I began to notice that Leah has a weak eye. One of her eyes is lazy and pulls to the side. It is difficult to notice sometimes. She has been wearing a patch to strengthen it. Another interesting fact about Leah is that as a baby she always got ear infections. She was our only child to get tubes put in her ears. She would be up all hours of the night and cry because her ears hurt. I think that was harder on me than her :)

Leah was born February 14th 2006. I was home and called Steve at work suggesting that it might be time to go to the hospital. It wasn't 10 minutes later that I was in full labor and Steve was already on his way home. Leah was my miracle baby. I have to explain what happened before she was born so you understand why she was a miracle.

When I was pregnant with Samuel...3 years earlier, I started having difficulty walking. I remember pain in my knee at first, then over time I was having pain in my ankle. Eventually all of my joints were sore. It began to be very painful to walk. The doctor thought Samuel might be resting on a nerve. It turned out that once he was born, and after the epidural wore off, the pain in all of my joints returned full force. I went to see a specialist who diagnosed me with a form of Rheumatoid arthritis. My joints were so restricted, I had no lift in my ankles that when I walked even the slightest incline or pebble would make me stumble. The wind could literally blow me over. And when I fell...IT HURT!

Well, the doctor put me on some "anti-malaria" drug, and steroids. Eventually, the pain lessened. I was on meds for what seemed forever, I blew up like a balloon. My joints were weakened drastically. I was walking with a cane.

My prayer was that I would still be able to have children (With 2 boys, I still wanted a girl.), that I wouldn't get pregnant while on the medication, that I would be able to walk normal again...and that I could care for the children I had. Looking back at the experience, this trial was a stepping stone of many to grow me in my faith. I am strengthened by remembering the Lord's goodness to me.

After 3 years of being on medication, I was able to get weaned off of it. A month after being off medication I found out I was pregnant. Five months later, I found out I was having a girl.

Here are some pictures I have been holding onto to post.

Leah playing with her new doll from Daddy.

Beautiful girl playing in the leaves.

My little mud pie. I have the most difficult time keeping her out of the mud. She loves it. No matter what the season.

This was a fun mess to clean up.

Leah playing dress up with stick on nails.

Examining the long fingernails.

These press-ons came with a nail care kit she got as a present.

She loves being a girl.