A wonderful story.....

Once upon a time there was a baby boy.....
One day he left the warmth of his mother's womb and was born into this sometimes cold and often harsh world..... It was a day to be remembered....a day to celebrate...

He was born.
Plummeted into the arms of his eager mother.....
the second son, a brother......

He had been prayed for,
hoped for....
longed for.....

He was a gift....
a blessing.....

As his mother looked down upon his tiny face, she saw nothing but beauty and love.....
for she had never imagined her heart had been large enough to love two children completely....
but in that moment, she had no doubt.....

She touched his tiny cheek and daydreamed of his life to come.....
the future sound of his voice,
the curve of his smile,
the giggles she would someday hear......
She filled up further with joy as her first born son rushed in to meet his new brother.....not quite two years old but already filling the role quite nicely.....

She saw endless possibilities for this new child.....
excited to get to know the person he was and would become.

As the days quickly passed she basked in the light of motherhood.....barely dodging hurdles of .self doubt and worry.....
She found a rhythm and her love grew.....

The family fit together.
They were one....
Struggles came and they stood firm....

And then it happened....
one day the mother realized that her tiny baby was not like her other son....in ways that surpassed the normal differences she should have seen.....
He cried more,
he struggled constantly....
and as she reflected back upon the last 6 months, she began to see moment after moment where her fears became more realized....

He began to have more bad days than good....
his mother and father and brother watched as he cried tears of pain and fell deeper into sickness....

They prayed for answers...
They crossed rivers of false hope,
and paddled up the streams of silence...all the while searching for the cure, the reason....the anything.

As the years passed the baby grew older, but he failed to grow in health.....

he would live months that were seemingly normal only to crash further down into the pit of despair....
His parents prayed.

His mother and his father learned that every smile was worth cherishing...
that each good moment could soon be gone.....
and with every day that passed in their life together, they learned that time is fleeting....

The mother spent many days, weeks, and months at her sons side in the hospital.....
She held his hand and he weaved his frail fingers around hers....
She prayed....

She watched parents around them suffer through their child's last breath....
She knew that the sickness could win at any moment....
because it often did....

Death was a real thing.
and it took beautiful children every day....
children whose parent's were far from ready to say goodbye....
children who smiled through treatments....
laughed through tears....
Children who were innocent and lovely....

To this day, this mother remembers each child she knew that had gone too soon....She thinks of them each and every day....because those beautiful beings represent reality....
A reality that most are blind to....
A reality that seeps far beyond the stresses of every day life....

As the tiny baby grew into a boy, his mother held tighter to him....
for she feared that his time might be short.....
his sickness continued to win....
and it was slowly taking over his body.....
She had witnessed his most terrible moments....

but.
She had also witnessed his best.
She prayed.

She allowed herself to smile.
She gathered memories of the good.
She watched her frail child become an amazing young man....
She watched as everyone he met, fell in love with him.
She watched as he changed people's lives....
She watched as he changed her....

The boys family held tight to hope and clung to the truth that never changes....
God is love.

They believed that great things would come from their son's suffering....
and that even though they could see no good in the pain.....
God's promises hold firm.

The little boy believed in God.
He spoke of Him.
He prayed to Him.....
and quite possibly, he understood Him more than the rest of his family ever could.

As the health of the little boy faded,
the hope never did.

One day, the sickness became worse than it had ever been.

The little boy's parents were faced with a difficult decision.
Could they risk their son's life for a chance to save it?

It had been 5 years worth of sickness and pain....
The family headed into the unknown....
The father, the mother, the brother, the new sister and the little boy.....

They knew not what the future held.
They choked down fear as they handed their son over to the doctors, to God....
They knew that, whatever the outcome would be....He was capable of bringing beauty....
They prayed.
They trusted.....

The little boy's brother came forward as a great knight in the face of the present danger....
He was given responsibility far beyond his years....
he made a decision to give a small piece of himself to his little brother.....
He was afraid....
but he believed that God was with him......
and he believed that if there was a chance he could help....he didn't want to miss it.
And at only 7 years old....he became a hero.

The dangers were real....
the pain was real too....

and in the months to come there would be fear and many tears.....

The difficulty began to bear fruit........

A year would pass.....
the little boy became stronger day by day.....
he began to transform...
he left behind his frail body and exchanged it for a healthy one....

His eyes began to glow like they had never done before....
His smile became brighter....

The little boy became the brother he had always wanted to be.....
a playmate....
a friend....
Not always needing help.....but always playing....

His brother shifted from the boy's caregiver, to his teacher....giving lessons in all things boy.....
They wrestled....
they fought...
they laughed......
They shined together.......
Stitched tightly with an unbreakable bond.....
making up for years worth of lost time....

The missing piece of one brother was filled with the other....

And each day that passes, the little boy becomes more whole...

He gives perspective to life...
He adds joy to heartaches....

As the mother lay next to her little boy....she brushed a curl from his eyes.....holding tightly for a moment....for the curl had not been there before.....it was earned....by the boy. Through days of Chemo and difficulties....Weeks of baldness.......super hero hats....
The curl, that was amongst many upon the boys head, was earned.....

And to the mother....they represent so much more.....

So as she stares at the boy...who now covers 3/4's of her own body length.....who is now almost too heavy to carry....after years of being unable to walk......

She watches his chest rise and fall......she remembers when he could not breathe on his own.....the difficulty of the oxygen while at home....the pain of the silent screams while he was on the ventilator.....She matches her own breath with the rhythm of his.....
She strokes his cheek....
Squeezes his chubby fingers.....

and she silently thanks God for the pain......
for this moment means so much more......

And the reflection brings a joy that cannot be measured....
no matter what is to come....
Because a life uncertain....chisel's beauty into the stone of pain....
and when you stop to reflect.....you can bask in the majesty......
of a wonderful story that is being told......