My Amazing Son
Happy 33rd, Alex! He is a miracle baby! He came out fighting and survived many life-saving surgeries the day he was born and beyond.
This was my entry into motherhood.
This was my first real glance at my son, two days after he was born. He was came into the world with life-threatening medical issues and was whisked away to the neonatal unit of another hospital. Meanwhile, the hospital he was born in would not release me because I needed to recover more. He had multiple surgeries the day he was born, and in the weeks that followed. It would be 32 days before I could even hold him. He was wired from head to toe, has IVs in tender places, and his face was taped with the mask that held a breathing tube in place. I was terrified. But when I finally got to sit down next to his isolet and touch him, he opened his eyes to say "Hi Mama."
He was in the neonatal unit for 73 days before I could take him home. He spent much of that time in an incubator.
One day, I came in to find a beautiful little Lady of Guadalupe image placed on his incubator. It was plastic and sat there, as if to protect him. I asked the nurses and the doctors who left it and no one had a clue. 🙂
I felt the room filled with angelic presence the day he was born, but I didn't think about it in the stress of those early days.
But after I found the Divine figure on his incubator is when I truly began to sense there was Divine protection around him.
He grew into an extraordinary young man with a beautiful heart and soul, and a reslilence that inspires people every day.
My work as an author launched at the same time I became a mother.
My son, Alex, just celebrated his b-day. On the Friday before his birth, 33 years ago, I went into pre-labor with my son, while standing in a Fed Ex office where I was dropping off a manuscript I had just finished editing. :-) He waited until I was at the counter, submitting the package and form, and it was safely on it's way to my publisher. Then he began to make his way.
He was born two days later after a very long labor. It just so happened that my first book was published the same day as his day of birth. It is now out of print and forgotten, but my life as a mother has been quite a unique and ongoing journey.
I was 34 at the time my son was born. I guess it is not a surprise that I have spent almost half my life birthing books and sharing a special bond with my extraordinary child. He has grown into a loving man with a beautiful heart and soul and he is more gainfully employed then I am (11 years at the same radio station).
There was a time when I told our story from the perspective of a mom of a special needs child. But he has had an extraordinary life and has his own story to tell. I hope he does his own book.
In addition to all his radio and podcasting skills, he is a great writer.