This Love Thursday is about birthday candles! Not the normal little stick birthday candles but the number ones that proudly display the birthday boy or girl’s age. These candles have come to have special meaning to me.

Using the numbered candles is a thing that Charlie’s adoptive family does. Growing up, we just used the regular ole’ stick candles and just put however many that person was turning. I just continued doing that with Noah.

At Charlie’s first birthday party, A. had a number one candle on his birthday cake. After the party was over, she gave the candle to me! I was surprised! She’d had two different family parties so she had two candles. She told me how she got those types of candles each year and saved them. I was pleased to have that candle to remember Charlie’s first birthday by and touched by her thought in giving it to me.

The next year, the same thing happened. She gave me the number two candle. This tradition has continued each year. This past year, on Charlie’s fifth birthday, instead of going to his family’s house, he and his family came to my home. I was able to decorate my dining room area with birthday balloons and a birthday banner. I made his birthday cake myself. And when I was in the store buying the candles, I didn’t think twice about buying the number five candle.

Birthdays are such an emotional time for birthmothers. Most birthmothers will agree that they are probably the hardest day of the year emotionally. They bring up so many memories and I often find myself replaying through my mind the labor and delivery process and then the relinquishment and saying goodbye. Knowing

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More on Birthdays:
Your Child’s Birthday
Charlie’s Fifth Birthday
Charlie’s First Birthday
Birthday Letters

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