My Nephew
About thirty eight years ago, my brother and his wife were getting ready to welcome a new baby into the family. This was very exciting for all of us. I would be a first time Aunt and my Mom and Dad would become first time Grandparents, then there is my brother was going to be a first time Dad. That was a lot of first times for our family. I was the oldest child of my parents and had never given them a grandchild. We were all over the moon. My sister-in- law was as calm as a cucumber in all this excitement. She was a real trooper .It was the slowest nine months of all our lives.
I can remember when my brother called me to tell me the news. I answered my phone and he said, the rabbit died, I said what , what are you talking about. Then it hit me, I screamed you’re having a baby!!!! He said yep in about nine months. I congratulated him and wished them the best.
And lo and behold the day finally came. It’s a Boy!!! We rushed to the hospital to see this little miracle. When we got there, there was some trouble with his breathing. Well we started praying for this little guy, we had waited too long for him to even think about losing him.
For the next year, he was in and out of the hospital , when he was born, the cartilage in his sinuses were not fully developed and every time he would try to take a bottle, he would pass out cold. Because this cartilage would close down and shut off his ability to breathe. He couldn’t suck a bottle without the same thing happening. They ended up putting a tube in his stomach and fed him that way. So they finally took him to Children’s hospital in Lansing and the Dr’s inserted a tracheotomy tube. Before this he was one year old and could hardly sit up by himself and because of lack of oxogen, his skin had a blue tinge to it. This procedure is the best thing they could have done for him. In one months time, he was chubby and pink skinned looking healthy. He was a happy little boy, and so were the rest of us. He had a lot of health problems through the years and everywhere they went, they had to carry a suction machine. My Sister-in-law waded through all of this with such calm and grace, and they both took such good care of him. He had tried to breathe so hard, that he pulled his stomach up under his rib cage. Because of this, he had to have surgery to pull the stomach back to where it was supposed to be, he ended up having to have an esophageal wrap. I think he might have had that surgery at least twice.
A Doctor told us that he probably would not live to be an adult. I’m here to tell you, prayer changes things. He is 38 years old today, and can get through a computer problem like nothing. If any of us have a problems with our phone , iPad or computer, we all call him for help. Or if you can’t find something on your TV, we call him then too, he has set up ROKU on all our TV’s .
He is and continues to be a blessing in our lives. He is a gentleman and loves old people, which is good for us, we are all old.