All I Want for Christmas

I never have been one to receive gifts well. My responses are always so awkward that the person giving the gift has surely regretted it. Perhaps this is because I do not typically want tangible gifts. The same is true now more than ever. There is nothing that I want that someone can purchase or make. This year, I can honestly say there is only one thing that I want for Christmas. This is a gift that only my Heavenly Father can grant. I want my Rebecca to be healed. I recognize that this is a loaded request. I want her to stop hurting and suffering. I want to see her smile. Perhaps I have not updated the website because I want to share the positive with you. However, there has been no change for Rebecca, which actually makes it worse. She is almost 8 months old and has lost her ability to track objects with her eyes and her ability to look at others. We have yet to see any purposeful movement for her. Her brain is not growing, and her seizures and spasms are not stopping. A recent increase in medication is hoped to improve her condition, but it has not as of yet. I expect we will be adding yet another medication for her in January to help ease her suffering and to hopefully stop her seizures. Her doctors give us the expectation for her to function somewhere within the severe to profound range of retardation. Translation, she may never do many simple things such as sit up. For example, right now her "mental age" is that of less than a one month old baby, so she is not expect to do anything that a 1 month old can do. This is why she appears so young to most who see her. I paint a bleak picture intentionally. She was dead for a minimum of 15 minutes, much likely for a lot longer in utero. The doctors expect very little from her. It is a miracle that she is able to eat, and she has been able to eat baby food as well as take a bottle. Everything she does is a direct result of God's grace. Anything she is ever able to do will continue to be a direct result of God's grace. Please continue to pray for this mother's deepest wish. For God is not confined by the parameters of this physical world and all things are possible through Him. May you each feel the full weight of your blessings this Christmas season.