Michael Jackson Never Celebrated His Birthday

Today I am a bit sad. Today is my son's 17th birthday. I'm sorta sad because we did not have a huge celebration to commemorate his birth. It also reminded me that Michael Jackson supposedly never celebrated his birthday. Michael Jackson was brought up Jehovah's Witness. I do remember one photo of either his birthday or his mother's birthday in the paparazzi.
I have done some studying with the Jehovah's Witnesses in my home. I agree with some of their doctrine. Some of it I do not believe in. I will have to say I learned a few things from them. In my opinion they have very similar beliefs to the Seventh Day Adventist. Not every precept is the same but quite a few in my opinion.
I think it cannot be wrong to celebrate the years my Lord has given us with our son. Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate anything but the Lord's Supper at passover, around Easter. They do not celebrate the hedonism that was celebrated by the Greeks before the more traditional form of celebrating Easter was ordained by the church. I have also had some problems with Easter since I have learned the meaning of the rolling of the eggs and such other common practices. It does in a way take away from the meaning of Passover. The most sacred believe we Christians are commanded to celebrate to commemorate the Lord bringing us out of Egypt into the Promise Land.
Returning to my original subject of Birthdays. I remember the time when my son was six months old and I was not able to take care of him. I had what I thought was a terrible migraine. This was no ordinary migraine. I had been bedridden for almost three weeks. I had to quit driving because I was seeing things. I was in so much pain. I hope to never forget this time in my life. For though this time I realized that God was with me always. When I was 12 years old I prayed to God to give me a son and a husband to name him after. It was given as asked. I know without a doubt my husband and son are a gift from God. I pray I will be able to offer my best to show appreciation to God's precious gifts to me. My answered prayers. When I was so sick and missing my son alone in the bed. I would often pray to God. I was blessed to go to some doctors which gave me some pain medicine for some relief at times. However most of the doctors told me I was not feeling what I said I was feeling and they also told me I was stressed. This is mostly due to the fact they had no idea what was going on in my body. Neither did I.
So I suffered and prayed and sought relief. It had gotten so bad to the point I could not stand to watch or be in a room with the tv on. I could not stand to be in candlelight. It just hurt so very badly. One day, I called my grandma and told her " I think I am dying." I had no idea at the time that I was actually dying. I got up three times that day and opened the phone book to find my choir director's number. Each time I tried to look into the phone book I could not see anything. I was desperately searching for prayer to save my life. That same night my husband had returned home from work and some of his friends had come over. I remained in the bed. I finally called him in the room and told him to tell everyone to leave because I was dying. A few minutes later after everyone had left the doorbell rung. I looked at Ed and said " I don't care who it is I don't want to see anyone. " From my bedroom I heard my choir director's voice and the pastor from my church. They had never been to my home before and I know God sent them there that night. I got up out of the bed and laid down on the couch before them and asked for some prayer. The next day the doctor's tested for the problem that I had. The test was negative. I had told them to take an MRI of my back also since they had said I had bulging disks in my back. I told them " I cannot live this way." So the MRI of my head was clean, and the one of my back showed I had bulging disks. About two weeks later I went to a doctor at UVA hospital. They did several hours of testing on me and found I had fluid on my brain. The test that should have shown this did not. However after having a few spinal taps and being on a direitic for almost a year I was healed. I praise God for giving me more life to spend with my son and husband.
I remember praying in the bed to allow me the chance to see my son graduate from high schoool. I also remember asking him to allow me to teach him and watch him grow up.

For this blessing I Praise God! This is the reason I have to believe it is not a sin to celebrate birthdays. In my eyes it is a celebration of God's good gift of life on this earth with the ones we love. My son is today July 18th 2009, seventeen. I know too many children that never made it to see their seventeenth birthday. My heart goes out to those. I also know some that did not get to see their mom on their 17th birthday. I also cry with them. Even if I don't get to throw a big bash for my son I want him to know how much I have been blessed by his presence. I want to thank God on this day for allowing me to be a part of his life.