What’s Your Happiest Moment?

Can you pinpoint that one moment in your life—that one you can immediately jump back to and say, “That was my happiest moment”?

Mine: the birth of Aaron, our first-born son. This is not to take away from my excitement of baby Emily and baby Kyle. But before Aaron, I believed I would never have children. Two miscarriages from my failed marriage twelve years earlier was proof of that. The thought that it could never happen to me made it so dreamlike and surreal.

But on July 1st, 1985, at 36 years of age, I held my Aaron Nathan in my arms. God was so merciful. Labor lasted only three hours and the pain of childbirth passed quickly—soon forgotten. I had never before seen such a beautiful pink wrinkly and scaly head. Later, when Larry and I looked at baby pictures, we realized this scrawny little six-pounder resembled a naked chicken you would get from the grocer. We wondered if our friends thought we were crazy when we talked about our boy who was perfect in every way.

But oh—that joy that raced through my veins when I first saw him. Every square inch of my body tingled. I cried and laughed at the same time. The nurse placed the naked bundle in my arms, and as I cradled him in my warmth, Larry stood over us, holding both my hand and Aaron’s little one, and prayed a prayer of thanksgiving. And together, we gave him right back to the Lord.

At 3:00 a.m., I knew everyone in the whole world would want to know Aaron had arrived. So I woke them up—first our parents, then our siblings who all had to be up for work two hours later. We called friends both near and far. By 5:00 a.m., we couldn’t think of anyone else to call. The nurse brought Aaron, tightly swaddled, into my room in a warming bed, and I spent several hours watching him sleep before they let me cuddle him again.

I love that God gives us these moments to look back on and to relive whenever we want.

Now you write down your happiest moment. Put it in a safe place for loved ones to read in the years to come.