The Ramthun Family: Happy 6th Birthday Nolan Harold!

April 20, 2009!

Nolan is 6 years old today! Wow! Where has the time gone? We had to teach Landon how to use two hands now to show how old Nolan is, he is getting so old! Each year that Nolan is still here with us is truly amazing. The past year has been better than others since he spent very little time in the hospital but he still had his bad days, more than we would like for him to have. When the doctors sat down with us back in September of 2009 we never thought we would be celebrating his 2nd birthday with him here physically, let alone his 6th birthday. We can remember the day that we found out we were pregnant with Nolan and how all you can think about is how it would feel to hold your baby and watch him or her grow up and do all these amazing things in life; never would we have imagined our son having to live the life that he lives now. We still believe that Nolan is doing amazing things in his life and all those things may not be apparent to us right now, but someday we will understand it all. The past 6 years have not been easy for Nolan by any means but somehow he never gives up. He is honestly the strongest, bravest kid we know and we are so proud to be his parents. He has been poked more times than we can even count and has spent nights wide awake because his brain just won't shut off . Nolan has spent 102 days of his life in a hospital hooked up to machines. He has been through more procedures and surgeries than most will in 100 years, but yet he never gives up. We can remember those nights in the PICU when we would stare at him and just hope and pray that we would be able to hold our son again and that we would celebrate his first birthday with him. God heard those prayers and sometimes it is hard to believe that God hears our prayers but we know he has a special plan for Nolan. So, today as we celebrate another year with Nolan we look forward to the coming year. A year filled with smiles, hospital free days, very few pokes, more good days then bad, lots of bonding with Landon and Mabel and most of all a year filled with Nolan knowing how much we love him. Happy Birthday to our "BigChief" Nolan Harold! We all love you and will keep fighting right along side you each and every day!