Take My Breath Away

I will admit that few moments in my life have taken my breath away. I have been beyond lucky in regards to travel. I have seen the Great Wall of China, the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, just to name a few. While those trips were undescribably exciting and wonderful, I wasn't blown away.
It takes other experiences to give me that giddy, over-the-moon feeling. The sound of the first cry of each of my newborns when they were born. When I heard, "I now pronounce you husband and wife." The first time I felt my children move when I was pregnant with them and the first time I heard each one of them say. "mama." These are the types of moments that catch me off guard and make me realize how incredible life is.

I had another moment last night. This time it involved our oldest son, Gabriel. He has been struggling learning how to read. He has only a few sight words memorized and should have close to 100 at this point in his education. He can recognize very few words. I have been working on sounding out words with him for over a year and a half.
Last night I watched him sound out 12 words on his own - I couldn't not stop giggling with glee. There were no pictures, just twelve short /a/ words. He sounded out each letter and put it together. The biggest, broadest smile erupted on his face as he realized he COULD read.
He can read twelve words - cat, bat, rat, sad, man, fan, jam, bag, map, pan, can, and hat. It's a start. This was a huge hurdle for us and watching the lightbulb click on for him was nothing less than a moment that took my breath away.