A Lazy Saturday Morning...

I have a trisomy friend, Kara, whose T13 son's story has gone viral on YouTube and the Team Corbin facebook page has over 23k likes! He is in the hospital and had bowel surgery yesterday where a foot of dead intestines was removed. Before the surgery, they were given an opportunity to stop Corbin's journey. For children like Corbin, Rebekah, and others who are deemed chronically ill, incompatible with life, etc, there will always be a group of people who think we are going too far...torturing our kids as we push them through surgeries and medical procedures, and haul them from doctor appt to doctor appt. Kara posted a very heartfelt explanation:

"Many have asked, how far are we willing to go? The surgeon told me this morning, you do have the option to stop right here right now. My response was simple, "That's not an option." Many ask why? Some have opinions and wonder when enough is enough, well I'll tell you. Until you have a child that's sick, who fights every day to thrive, until you take every moment with grace, and I mean LITERALLY every moment. The second you get excited when your child sees the outside world. The second you are grateful to dress your child and the second you are grateful for every OUNCE your child gains; then you'd understand. Those kids, my kid, they fight for their life! They have no voice so we advocate. I advocate for my son what I think he can handle and my mommy instincts haven't failed me yet. I look into my sons eyes and I know. I know he isn't done. So that folks, is why we fight and why we aren't done yet.

I want Corbin to experience life! Life outside this hospital, life with no nurses poking him every day, no doctors waking him every morning. And I know with every chance we give him he's one step closer to THAT life."

Kara's words reminded me of the many times we've had some moments in Rebekah's life where we thought we might lose her, and the moments when we had to make decisions to give up or move ahead. And we would turn to Rebekah, and SHE would let us know it is not time to give up, and God's grace would get us through it. 

I can often see the look of incomprehension or disdain on people's faces when they see Rebekah's battle scars or even when they meet her for the first time and all they can see is a severely "mentally retarded" child who must be a burden to her family.  But if you took a moment to step outside of your world and into our world, you would see that this journey makes us stronger, it brings us closer to God... There is something defining about the grace and strength you can receive even when feeling deflated and broken. There is always a sense of God's presence watching over us - holding us in our darkest moment and rejoicing in the bright moments. 

I almost feel as if I am asleep as of late because life is a little surreal and somewhat normal. But Kara's post about Corbin woke me up. This picture below, this seemingly normal scene of 5 kids lazily watching TV from their family room couch, is much more than just a photo of kids watching TV. It is a picture of why we do what we do!! This is one of the dreams that all parents of children with life threatening disorders have - that their child will get to experience and participate in life right along with the rest of us, even something as simple as sitting around on a lazy Saturday morning. And if you pause for just a second and think about where we came from and where we are today, you might begin to understand what drives us to not give up on these kids!