SunshineMama

My best and most favorite Valentine's gift EVER!

We’re snowed in today. We’ve gotten about 30 inches or MORE of snow since this morning. It’s still falling. It will STILL be falling tomorrow. The winds have been high….there’s drifts going up the side of the house and the van. Our neighbor’s car is completely covered. We can just BARELY see the posts from the garden fence sticking up out of the snow.

My mom reminded me of a snow storm like this 8 years ago on the same day. Well, it wasn’t QUITE this intense, but it was storm and it happened on Valentine’s Day 8 years ago. I remember VERY well what I was doing that day.

Eight years ago, my husband I decided that we would take our last date night out before our first child arrived. We wanted one last date as just the two of us before the little one came. Valentine’s Day was a Sunday, so it was perfect since he didn’t have to work that day. And our due date was February 23rd, so we figured we’d have plenty of time to get out for that last date.

Well, the day before Valentine’s Day, we knew something was happening. We also knew that we wouldn’t be going out for that last date on Valentine’s Day.

My water broke on the 13th and things held off until the evening. The snow started falling during the day and it got heavier as the night went on. We were living with my parents at the time…..we had just moved up from PA to Vermont and they let us stay with them for 13 months. (It was only supposed to be 4 months…..but you know how that is.)

We waited for the midwife to show up as the contractions got stronger. My mom thought for sure that she was going to have to deliver our baby….and she had only been on the OTHER side of birth….the giving end. Not the receiving end.

Our midwife finally pulled into the driveway about 3 am. It took her about an hour and a half to drive what should normally have taken only 35 minutes. She had to come down off the mountains and through the back roads to get to our house.

The candles in our room were lit and I was anxious to have it all be over and to have a baby in my arms. I was tired and falling asleep in between contractions. My mom and my husband were my anchors, but I know my mom was praying that she didn‘t have to deliver that baby on her own. My dad and my brothers took off downstairs to play video games and watch movies. They didn’t want to be near any part of the birthing process. I was okay with that. ;)

The midwife’s assistant pulled in just 5 minutes before I gave birth. She had gone off the road in a snow drift and she had also been pulled over by the police for driving a bit too fast in dangerous weather conditions.

At 3:43 am on Valentine’s day of 1999, our little Zachariah Judah entered the world, in my old bedroom at my parents‘ house. He was the best Valentine’s gift I’ve ever been given. I was more than happy to have him 9 days early, but I was especially happy that he was a Valentine’s baby. I was glad to forfeit the dinner date and hold our first child in our arms on Valentine’s Day. What a special and precious gift.

My dad cooked a very early breakfast for all of us that morning. The midwives were hungry and I was starving. He went into town later in the day and brought home a beautiful card and a single rose for me.

Ever since that Valentine's day, I've sent my midwife a handmade Valentine's card with an updated picture of Zach and a thank you for being there to help bring my Zachy-boy into our world.

Eight years later and we’re in the middle of a snowstorm again. But there’s no labor pains. Just a happy and healthy eight year old with a brilliant mind. And he’s all ours. It’s kinda funny how we haven’t really celebrated Valentine’s day for the last 8 years. Once Zach was born, it was his day. All his. Davy and I don’t give cards to each other on this day. We celebrate it all as Zach’s day. The way we look at it, Valentine’s Day just happens to fall on HIS day. :)

A Picture of the Zachy-boy

Here's a picture I took the other night of Zach laying on the couch. He was looking at his postcard album (I have to buy him another one because we've used up all the slots in this one.... THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!), studying his scorpion (which was sent by Alyssa), and keeping his bug net nearby (you know, in case there might be any bugs around).

I don't often get pictures of Zach looking directly into the camera. He's shy of the flash sometimes. He's also missing his two top teeth......isn't he just the cutest???

I just updated the list on the sidebar this morning with 11 more postcards. Zach got an envelope from my grandmother the other day with a pile of postcards from Germany (my grandmother immigrated to the US back in the 1950s and has been spending part of her recent years in Germany with her siblings and other relatives). What was so special about these postcards is that some of them are postcards that have been sitting in her stash for YEARS.....some are postcards that she's received from relatives over the years. But two postcards that are precious to me are postcards that are old, black and white, a little on the faded side and bent. One has a photo of the town where my grandfather grew up and the other is an aerial view of where my grandmother grew up. That she would take these out of her stash and send them to my son means a lot to me. I'm just as fascinated by these postcards as my son is.

Thank you again for being a part of this project with us! You've all truly been a blessing to us!

(click here to see Orginal Post)

Wow!

Wow! You all amaze me!!! Every day there are new postcards in the mail box for Zach. He LOVES getting these and takes them with him to school each day for Show & Tell. The rest of the class and his interventionist are having so much fun with this project right along with him! Even the postmaster at the post office has enjoyed looking at the pictures on the front of the cards when she sorts the mail!

To date, he's received 50 postcards! It just blows my mind how generous and caring people are! I really appreciate all of you! For taking the time to find a post card, to write a sweet note about the place that you live (or have visited on vacation), and for the little gifts that some of you have sent along! We totally didn't expect that, but we SO appreciate all the thoughtfulness that you've put into this project!

I found a little album for Zach to put his postcards in and it even has a world map on it! Talk about a perfect find! He looks through this album many times throughout each day. He can page through his album, pick out a postcard and show me where it comes from on the map and on his globe. He's amazing! We've all learned SO much through this project and it's still just begun!

I'm obsessed with traveling, culture, architecture, etc. This has been a way for me to travel without leaving my little town, as well. Thank you SO much for that blessing!

I'll try to get a picture up on here sometime this week showing Zach and his maps, his album and the really cool scorpion he got in the mail last week!

Make sure you check out the sidebar on the right to see where his postcards have come from!

Zach has had some HAPPY mail days!!!

Thank you so much!!!! Zach got his first postcard last Friday (the Santa Cruz Boardwalk postcard in the middle of this picture), then followed by the New York City one on Sat, then followed by 4 more yesterday from Alaska, Wales (UK), Missouri and Los Angeles! He's looking forward to checking out the PO Box today after school! You all have made him a happy little boy!

Here's the original post in case you're interested: CLICK HERE and please feel free to pass this on to anyone and any groups you're on that you think  might be interested in taking part. :)

I'm stopping at Barnes & Noble tonight to pick up a brand new WORLD MAP to put on Zach's wall and will update with a pic soon to show Zach putting his stickers on the countries and states he gets his postcards from. :) So far, we've been using his globe and looking for the locations.

Zach is so funny.....he took his postcard collection with him to Show & Tell at school today! He's so excited about them and has asked SO many questions about what's in the pictures. When he got the NYC postcard, I told him it was the Empire State Building and he proceeded to ask me how many windows were on the building. I told him to count them. And count them he DID! I'll have to ask him again how many there were. :)

I've put up a list on the side bar of my blog here to keep you all updated on where Zach has "traveled" through you all sending your postcards. Check back to see it updated! :)

Thank you again!!!! I've been so touched with all the personal emails I've gotten from people all over the world that have shared stories about their autistic kids, about friends that have autistic children, with all the encouragement and excitement you've had about this project and all the kind words! It just goes to show that there is still kindness in this world. Thank you all for making the world, and Zach's world, a better place!

Help Zach see the world!

Let me introduce you my little hero: my son Zachariah

Zach is almost 8 years old. Zach is also autistic. (CLICK HERE to see a scrapbook page and the journalling I did on Zach a couple years ago.)

We caught his autism early....at 13 months old. He's been in intervention since he was 18 months old, as it took us 5 LONG months to find a program and someone that could help us. Both Zach and the state of Vermont have come a LONG way since then.

Zach is now in second grade and is caught up with the rest of the kids in his class and is even ahead of some of them in some subjects. It took him until 4 years old to regain the small amount of words he lost at 13 months. His vocabulary still has a little ways to go, along with his pronunciation, etc.

Zach ADORES bugs......he would live outside catching bugs all day if he could. It wouldn't surprise us if one day he ended up working for National Geographic, trekking through the Amazon and the jungles of Africa discovering and researching new species of insects. He also loves to look at biology books and can tell you where many of the body's organs are and what they do.

Zach is also in love with the great big WORLD! He's fascinated by maps, topography, geography, etc. The walls in his room are covered with maps of Italy, the planets (he loves space, as well), the US, Vermont, etc. Just the other day, my dad, who is the greatest "Dumpster Diver" in the WORLD, saw that our neighbor had thrown out a perfectly good GLOBE of the world! In PERFECT condition! My dad pulled it out and brought it in for Zach. It even has the mountain ranges in topographical form on the globe! Zach has been ECSTATIC about it since my dad brought it into the house!

Anyway....along with his autism, Zach also has a lot of Obsessive Compulsive behaviors. Right now, he's having a hard time transitioning into the end of fall and the onset of winter. With his love of bugs (and he has bug jars EVERYWHERE in our house!), he's been really upset that most of the bugs have either died off or gone into hiding for the winter. My mom had a WONDERFUL idea to give Zach something to look forward to during the winter months. She got the idea from a movie she recently watched.

Zach loves the world.....he loves hearing about different places, loves to find things on the map (and now on his "new" globe), etc.

Mom thought it would be a great project to have him receive post cards from all over the world! We're planning on buying a brand new map of the world and putting it up on his wall. We're going to get a package of little stickers so that we can pinpoint where his postcards arrive from. I'm also going to keep all of his postcards in an album so that he can page through them and look at them whenever he wants.

But I need your help for this project! Would you be willing to send Zach a postcard? This would be something he could look forward to each day after school.......the post office where we get our mail is right next to the school and he loves to open my little box with the key. It would be such a blast for him to look in that box each day with the hopes of being able to "travel" some place new without even leaving our little town (though he's just ITCHING to get out there and see the world himself!).

So......whadda ya say? Want to help put a BIG smile on my little guy's face?

Zachariah Martin
PO Box 153
Ferrisburg, VT 05456

I'll be updating here with a running list of where our postcards come from. :) Thanks in advance for ALL of your help! We'd love to get a postcard from ANYWHERE.....even if you're just down the road from us! Don't forget, he's also got a HUGE Vermont map on his wall, too! :)