May 29, A Very Special Day!!!

Tafta, me, Ken & Joe

Today is sweet baby Joe's 29th birthday, it is also Tafta and Matt's 7th wedding anniversary.  What a pleasure Joe & Tafta have always been to me!  Even when I was carrying Joe and sick as I could be, he was wanted.  I knew the fourth child, the sixth member of our family would complete us until they all grew up to get married and started having children of their own. 

Some things I didn't know was that he would marry a wonderful girl, Casondra, and have 2 beautiful girls, Sadee & Sophee.   I also didn't know Tafta would bless our lives with Matthew Rogers and 2 wonderful girls, Audrey Jane & Ava.

When I first got pregnant with Joe & I mean morning one, Ken said to me, "Well, he'll be born May 28th."  I said, "We'll see."  Thinking that man is crazy.  I still had prenatal vitamins left over from Ben and I was so very sick.  I couldn't get to the Dr., because of the severe nausea.  Best diet I ever went on.  When I finally called the Dr. that had delivered the other three, he jumped all over me...I was at that time six months pregnant and he was going to be out of the country when the baby was due to be delivered.  He sent me immediately to another doctor.  This doctor told me he didn't believe I was pregnant.  I wasn't showing at all.  I told him I knew I was because I was so very sick and the baby was already kicking.  He was emphatic that sometimes women want to be pregnant so much that they can give themselves all the symptoms.  I thought well if you don't get the show on the road, I might deliver my symptom at home.  But I kept that comment to myself.  He called in his technician to do an ultrasound.  This was the first one I'd ever had. 

Sure enough there was our boy sucking his thumb.  You could almost see him grinning!  The technician ran out of the room and in came the doctor, "Well, I see you are pregnant!"  Again I kept my mouth shut.  Amazing...  He set my due date for May 21, because the baby was big.  Ken said, "Wrong, May 28."  He knows his math but he forgot about midnight...anyway.  Joe weighed in at 9 lbs 15 oz, May 29, 1982.  He came so fast that the doctor that delivered him did so in cut off jeans and a t-shirt.  That fits Joe.  He has been a delight ever since...a wonderful baby, a delightful child, a courageous man.  On this Memorial Day Weekend, I salute you Joe!

Joe & Cas as he departs for Iraq.

While Joe was training for his "stint" in Iraq, Tafta married Matthew Steven Rogers.  I remember right before their wedding, we called Joe and sang "Happy Birthday" to his answering machine.  Then it was on with the wedding.  It was  beautiful...there was a gorgeous bride and a handsome groom.  Her brother Ben married them because Tafta wanted her Daddy to give her away & sit by me.  That was a trip.  The part I always wanted to do was sing "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof, Ken & I did that too!  Well the wedding turned out with a hitching!  And all is right with the world...I love you guys and wish you many more years of married bliss...

Tafta, Ava, Matt, & Audrey