Monday’s Message

Today, I am thinking about my son, Topher.  He turned seven years old yesterday.  It has me thinking back to the first few days he was with us.  We had a normal pregnancy.  Tab became more beautiful and I gained a ton of weight!  We had no reason to suspect anything was awry. 

Topher’s delivery was also completely normal.  He scored high on all those initial tests they give a kid when they’re only minutes old – which I always thought was completely unfair because they haven’t had any time to study!  Talk about a pop quiz!  The nurses took him back and the next 24 hours went smoothly. 

During the second night on his life, Topher went into serious breathing distress.  His O2 levels dropped dangerously low, and the medical staff that was on at 3am swept in and took him from us.  Delirious with fear, his mother and I spent the rest of the night at the nurses station watching our brand new child struggle to gulp in the air he so desperately needed. 

Tests were run the following day and a pediatric cardiologist found an atrioventricular defect in Topher’s heart.  It’s a kind of hole in the heart where fluid won’t stay where it should and instead backs up in the lungs causing congestive heart failure.  This type of defect was typically seen only in kids with another type of genetic condition.  The geneticist did his work and three days later they confirmed that Topher has Down Syndrome.

In one moment – an instant – everything about our expectations had changed.  The situation had been what it was all of Topher’s time in the womb, but we just found out about it.  Those early days, we had many unbelievable fears.  Even now, we can’t fully see God’s infinite plan concerning our son.  But Tabitha and I both can assure you that God is in control!  I wonder how Joseph felt when his brothers did this?  He had this cool dream where his brothers all bowed down to him and stuff – it was cool!  I’m sure he must have scratched his head a time or two and questioned whether or It was a long time before he saw God’s plan unfold and could say this!

I have rambled a lot more than I intended.  I guess I am just thankful today.  Topher turned 7 yesterday and it just has me thinking about how awesome God is and what an amazing gift the lens of hindsight provides.  I watched him dance at his party on Saturday and it makes me want to do a praise dance and just say thanks God!