26 years ago today my son Thomas was born at 3:33 PM on Christmas Eve in Southern MD. It was quite an event because every thing that could go wrong went wrong. By 10PM that evening I was told to return to the hospital in Southern Maryland. My son was not going to make it. He was dying.
For those that do not remember the events of the day....Christmas eve in 1983 broke all records for temperature. "It was the coldest Christmas Eve on modern record in the United States" The wind chill that night was almost 50 below. The temperature in DC was 6 degrees with a fierce wind blowing. The gas in my car froze as I tried to drive from LaPlata MD to Southern MD hospital...they had to Medevac my son to Children's Hospital in Washington DC. I had to drive 10 miles on the shoulder of the road with he car bucking just to make it to the hospital. I had not slept for 2 days now. The temperature was so cold, there could not chance a life flight. My first thoughts was to get to the hospital and have my son baptized. He was not expected to pull through. When I arrived at the hospital, I could only get a nurse to baptize him. It was now midnight, and even all the priests could not be reached. They were busy doing midnight masses. As soon as he was baptized his ambulance sped away. It was a bitter sweet Christmas. When I left the hospital, I was stuck on the road for another 6 hours as my car froze up. At 5:30 in the morning, someone picked me up from the road, and got me to a service station. I got the car running again with the help of a few cans of dry gas. it was an event I would not want to relive. The interesting thing was that I had a lot of reflection that evening. It was a bittersweet event. There were no cell phones back then, and the feeling was that I was on my own.
It is amazing the details that we can remember on what should have been such a happy occasion, but the events forever changed my life. I have no regrets. I reached the point where I could accept the will of God. The way I look at life forever changed that evening. It is not the gifts we exchange, the presents, and the shopping that make the holidays, but it love,and it is the Grace of God. Christmas is a lot more important than any other day. It is an opportunity for a rebirth, for changing the way we think, the way we live, and look at life. It is the eternal message that God is here for us.
For myself, Christmas is about gaining the right perspectives in life and the surrender to the acceptance of the will of God. Though the events were traumatic, I will never forget that Christmas in 1983, nor do I want to. On Christmas morning 1983 ina neo-natal ward in Childrens Hospital in Washington DC, my son made a miraculous turn for the better. The doctors could not explain such a rapid recovery.
Today we celebrated my son Thomas's 26 birthday. I am most blessed for all the gifts that God has bestowed in my lifetime. I pray for others in their time of need that they be blessed with that same grace, and may they recognise the love of God as it occurs. It is an event not to be missed.
Merry Christmas to all!
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