The Brave Little Turtle

Once upon a time there was a very brave little Turtle. His name was Owen. He was always a very happy little turtle, but one day Turtle's Momma discovered that something was missing... and even though she was very protective of her little Turtle... Turtle's Momma loved him far too much not to help him find it...Turtle loved his world (quiet world though it was) and generally went with the flow, never causing anyone any trouble...even when it involved big, strange, yellow hospital socks...or that tight squeezy thing the nurses kept putting on his arm... Even with his tummy growling something terrible, when asked to remove his brand new special Cars jammies from Momma and exchange them for a silly hospital gown, Turtle never fussed or snapped... Turtle loved his brothers and sisters, his food, color crayons, his funny Daddy...
...and even though he hadn't had any of his beloved food in his tummy for over 12 hours, (unheard of for Turtle!) he behaved very nicely and made his Mommy and Daddy proud. The nurses and doctors said they'd never ever seen such a sweet turtle.

Turtle's Daddy made him smile when he started a crayon fight with him!

And when Turtle's Daddy put a crayon box on his nose and let Turtle stab him in his belly...Turtle laughed... in turtley delight.

Turtle had such a nice Daddy. He only got mad on those rare occasions that he was forced to watch grown men in striped shirts singing about Blues Clues. Daddy did not understand those men. Turtle wondered if Daddy might beat up the strange man in the TV...This was taking long! Turtle stretched his little legs... He didn't know how much longer he could last...But then Daddy found something very special in the bottom of the diaper bag. Turtle said: "Kenks Dat!"

(which in deaf turtle means "Thanks Dad")

Then they gave Turtle some medicine that was supposed to make Turtle sleep. It made his head very wobbly but his smile still very smiley.... And they whisked him away to go see if they could help fix what was missing...

That's when Turtle's Momma prayed and prayed. She didn't like Turtle being whisked away and she asked God to remind her that He was still in control and taking good care of His little one. And after a loooooong wait...Turtle woke up!

And was HUNGRY!

Turtle wasn't even opening his eyes yet when he was grabbing for any food in sight!

This was a new side of Turtle...

Momma felt a very sad for her hungry little Turtle struggling to wake up and make sense of it all.

It wasn't until Turtle was safe at home, and back in his own jammies, that a big smile spread across his little face...

Something seemed different?

Better...

Turtle was so happy, he started doing crazy things!

He was dancing!
Singing! (and yelling)...Wearing unconventional new head wear...

He discovered it was WAY more fun to terrorize little sister when he could hear her SCREECH!

He was delighted with the new town his sister had drawn for their cars to drive around in...

All in all, Turtle was very happy with this new noisy world. He is as happy as can be and we are all very thankful for everyone's prayers and to Turtle's great Creator for "wonderfully forming him" in the first place, continually protecting him and now blessing him with such a fun, new, noisy world.