Some of “The Rest Of The Story”
The Rest Of The Story – Before Matthew was born I prayed that my relationship with my son would be a close one. It seems that nowadays most parent/child relationships are strained to say the least. I had been privileged to observe a close relationship between a father and son who where friends of mine and it was something I wanted for myself and child, especially since my father was an alcoholic. At the time I didn’t realize how God was going to answer that prayer and if I did I would have said “No Thanks”. But because of Matthew’s disability I do have the closest of relationships with my son and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
Matthew was born 6 weeks premature. Dora had worked late that night and when she went out to her car it had been “parked in” so that the only way she could get into the car was through the passenger side and crawl over the gear shift. I have no doubt that factored in to her water breaking about 2am that night. It certainly didn’t help.
Because tests that night showed that the babies lungs weren’t developed enough the doctor decided that it would be best to try not to deliver the baby for as long as possible, so Dora was on hospital bed rest for 2 weeks (8 weeks before the due date). They monitored her and the baby everyday and after 2 weeks tests showed that one of them had an infection so she had to deliver.
Within an hour or 2 of delivery Matthew had respiratory problems and was transferred to another hospital that had Neo Natal Intensive Care capabilities. Matthew was placed on a heart / lung machine which basically did all the breathing and blood circulation for him. During this time, because of delivery stress, etc., Matthew had a bleed in the brain and the doctors thought they would lose him. I was angry with God for bringing us through all this but after wrestling with Him for hours that night I realized that the only hope Matthew had WAS God. When I finally “released” Matthew back into God’s hands I felt complete relief and slept the best I had in days. A few hours later in the morning when we called the NIC unit they said Matthew had improved. A day later he was off the heart / lung machine and breathing on his own.
I learned a lesson that night about trusting God. I don’t have all the answers and I still get frustrated but I know God has a plan.
Matthew just turned 18, and although he is disabled and we have many challenges, we wouldn’t trade him for anything. In a way God has used Matthew to keep us close to HIM. Matthew has been an influence on many lives, including ours.
We enjoy doing as much together as possible. Matthew has his passions like model trains and dolphins and we have enjoyed sharing in these with him.
Be careful what you pray for – you might just get it.
— Mark