8 Wonderful Years

I can't believe our N. turned 8 this past August. Even though my other children's birthdays all make me reminiscent of the milestones they have reached, I must say that N.'s birthday is always a bit more emotional for me. This is because we didn't think N. would ever have a birthday. When he was born with a rare chromosomal disorder, the doctor asked us if we were religious people. When we said yes, of course, he suggested we have N. baptized immediately. This is never a good thing to hear hours after giving birth to your child. The chaplain was called and he baptized N. with just my husband, myself, the nurse, and a nun present. N. was then taken to the local children's hospital for more intensive care. N. was born without an anal opening (something I quite frankly had never even heard of before!) and required surgery at 1 day old. We quickly learned this was just the beginning of a very difficult time for N. The next day, we were told N.s heart needed to be repaired. As our children's hospital did not have a cardiac surgeon at the time, N. had to be mercy flighted to an out-of-state hospital. We followed him there in our van. God was so good to us and gave N. the best doctors we could hope for. N.s heart is doing great now, and we expect no further complications with it-Praise God!!

That first year was definitely tough with an average of 3 doctor's appointments a week for various things, plus 12 therapy sessions a week for OT,PT,Speech, and vision. Looking back, I'm not sure how we got through it, but I know that it was Jesus giving us that strength and faith that this is all part of His plan. During that first year I wrote a little book for Noah because I was worried about how I would handle the "Why did God make me this way?" question someday. I called it God's Little Miracle. The story starts off with St. Peter being sad and worrying to God that people are not praying very much anymore. God responds by telling St. Peter not to worry because he is sending a very special baby to Earth that will bring many people closer to Him with all their prayers for this little baby.

To this day I am amazed how many people say that they pray for N. and our family. N. has a way of touching others and drawing them to prayer. God is good isn't He? I am so proud of my little guy that even though he can't say a word, his life says so much.