April, 14, 2006 was a bitter sweet day for me.

As long as I can remember, I wanted to be a mom. It would be 30 years old before that would happen. Damon and I had BIG plans for Justin. Baseball, football, soccer, but instead we spent most of the first 3 years of his life in hospitals at Ochsner’s and Tulane in New Orleans. Justin was born with a very rare chromosome deletion (2Q 35 deletion syndrome), a diaphragmatic hernia, hydrocephalus, a minor heart defect, and lung disease. When I say Damon and I were overwhelmed with all the medical information being thrown at us, is an understatement. We had never even heard of a diaphragmatic hernia! His hernia repair was at 4 days old and he was shunted at 2 weeks.

During all of the surgeries he had (I stopped counting at 25), I learned to focus on what God was doing for Justin and us, not the negative. At one point, we were told not to expect too much from Justin as he would probably never do much more that “lay in the bed.” As I was listening to this Dr. give us his grim opinion, I thought of the verse 2 Corinthians 5:7, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” At that moment, I decided I would do everything I could to give Justin a chance. It may work, it may not, but I didn’t care. I wanted to afford him every opportunity to be his best! With the help from our friends, families, especially my mom who kept him every day and took him to countless physical and occupational therapy appointments so Damon I and could work, and emotional and prayer support from our church family, Justin can now crawl, sit up on his own, and talks non-stop! I also want to mention the staff and students at Petal Elementary are absolutely amazing to their students with special needs!! They are accepting, encouraging, and include them on everything! I have learned so much in the 14 years of being his mom. I have learned that it is okay to be angry at this situation, after all we are supposed to be taking him to baseball practice, not therapy! I have also learned to be thankful for the important things in like (health, happiness, family), not material things, and that the situation can always be worse.  God has certainly blessed and humbled me through Justin. He has also blessed us with 2 more healthy children that LOVE their big brother.  I still struggle some days with accepting all of this, but with God and family, I am able to pull through one day at a time. 

-Amber