Christmas Miracle

Today my little nephew Vincent turned 5. As he opened his gifts and blew out his small number of candles, I couldn't help but be so overwhelmed with emotion that this little one is here with us blowing out candles on his 5th birthday.

2 1/2 years ago, he wasn't feeling well and hadn't been feeling himself for awhile. He had been taken in for an ear infection and a number of small things before he became really sick. He was admitted into the hospital for pneumonia the beginning of July in 2006. Cole and I went to visit him on the 4th of July and nothing seemed right. It didn't seem like it was something so small and I just had a gut feeling that something wasn't ok.

Just days after that, he was taken to Primary Children's for something that no one could figure out. After weeks of test after test, doctors still had not found the answer to what was taking over his body. On two occasions, my parents were called down to say their "goodbyes". I can without a doubt say that those couple of months were the absolute hardest months of my entire life.

After a couple of certain tests, several doctors had a conference and had an idea that it could be a rare disease called CGD or Chronic granulomatous disease. Basically, Vincent had no immune system. So when he got pneumonia, his body had no way of fighting it off. A doctor (or I'd like to think...angel) who had spent a lot of time studying this disease finally came into the picture. They knew what it was, but had a hard time fixing it. In what seemed like his last minutes of life, the doctor called a colleague of his for any ideas he might have to help before it was too late. He suggested a steroid treatment that ultimately saved his life.

It is truly a miracle that this little one is still here with us. There were so many times in those months that so many of us felt like we could not go on.

Although he has had Christmases with us before this one, he is a continual reminder that Heavenly Father lives and loves us enough to give us miracles when we've almost given up hope. There is no better time of year to be reminded of the every day miracles that happen in our lives. Every year Vincent will always be my little Christmas miracle.

Here are a few pictures of our little celebration we had tonight....

I love you forever buddy!