It was 29 Years Ago Today

Joey, waiting for his ride to
program this morning.

A child is a gift from God – except that you don’t get to open it right away. You can’t quickly tear away the paper from the blessed package and then leap years ahead to know what the future holds.  It takes time to unwrap the precious gift, a lifetime to uncover the fate of that tiny bundle of hope.

Some babies grow up smoothly, without too many surprises.  They walk and talk and go to school, get good grades, listen to their parents, get married and have children of their own without many bumps in the surface of their fortunate paths.  Proud parents beam with pride at their offspring’s expected, timely accomplishments.  But these babies are rare.  For most of us, I think, that tiny bundle delivers us years of heart-stopping surprises and sometimes deep despair, punctuated with indescribable happiness.

Such is true of a little boy born 29 years ago today, on freezing, gray day, but not so gray that you couldn’t see the majestic Chugach Mountains looming behind Providence Hospital in Anchorage, Alaska. My son was born at 3:20 PM, after 18 hours of labor and he entered this world with promise and a dream.  We just didn’t know at the time the nature of the dream, but here we are anyway, still in the midst of the serpentine path of autism; it has taken us places that we never knew existed.

So happy birthday, Joey.  I know that you will forever love blue and white frosted cupcakes with glowing candles and chocolate ice cream.  And thank you for the presents that you have given us, especially the gift of perspective.