Expander

For those who are curious about Samuel's expander (okay, maybe nobody), here is what it looks like:

They froze the wire so that it would contract in the shape of a "W".  Then slowly over the course of two months, the wire expands on it's own to it's original size, resulting in extra space on the upper jaw.  This is much different than what Luca had done where we had to turn his expander daily and achieved full expansion in three weeks.  In March, we will check Samuel's progress and start to prepare for braces.

Happy Birthday to Samuel

Our oldest son turns 11 years old today!   

Samuel is clearly in transition from childhood desires to more grown up interests.  His siblings are not too happy about that and are often frustrated that he won't join in their imaginary games.  Samuel prefers his imagination to be captured in books--a man after his dad's own heart.  His light is often on until 10:30 at night as he reads, with his latest book series being the Lord of the Rings.  He loves to share fun facts he finds from the book in the form of trivia questions, challenging his dad's Tolkien knowledge.  In the normal course of a days conversation he uses words that just aren't normal for an eleven year old's vocabulary.  What kid uses tertiary and archaic in a sentence?  When not stretching our vocabulary knowledge, you can often hear him speaking with lingo from Duck Dynasty.

Samuel is our very sensitive, sincere, intelligent and loving child.  He is also very timid outside of our family and does not desire to be the center of attention.  Girls are showing their interest in him at school and he comes home saying "I don't want to be popular!" He wanted to have a small party with just a few friends because too many people makes him nervous.  It was a our joy to host a party for him over the weekend with 5 of his classmates.  Some siblings of those classmates also came filling our house with 11 kids running up and down stairs, having an indoor Nerf gun fight and other chaotic games, that at times made me wonder if our house would come crashing down.  Samuel was very happy to have his friends over and we are so thankful how God has provided new friendships for him this year.

Today we celebrate his life as a family, enjoying cheesecake #2, presents and dinner out.  We love you so much, Samuel David!  Our family is blessed to have you in our lives.  May God continue to grow you into a man who loves and serves Him and others with all your heart!  We pray the gifts, talents and interests that He has given you will be used for His glory and to bless those around you.  You are one very special and always loved boy!