When our third child was a little baby, before we knew he
had Williams Syndrome, my husband and our two older boys all got a nasty
stomach virus. The baby had already spent multiple days and nights in the hospital
due to RSV so I really didn’t want him to get the stomach bug. I locked the two
of us in my room and declared it a germ-free zone.
The baby spent a lot of time nursing and snoozing in my
arms. I decided it was as good a time as any to try praying the rosary. I had
never quite understood the rosary and had never committed to trying it, but while
I passed those hours in my nursing glider, I did some googling and learned how
to say it. On one of the sites it said that Mary wants people to pray the
rosary so much that when you do it for the first time, you should pray for
something big--REALLY big--because she’ll want to help you so that you’ll
continue saying it. So, I prayed for my baby’s health. It had been such a tough
winter because of weather and disease and I had little stamina left to deal
with the baby being sick again. I prayed and prayed--always for his health.
He got the virus. Not as bad as I feared, but he got it.
When it was all over, we moved the glider back to his room. I
took the beads out of the chair’s pocket, tucked them in my nightstand drawer, and
proceeded to disinfect our house.
A month or two later, our son got diagnosed with Williams
Syndrome.
My faith was not shaken, but I sure wasn’t praying the
rosary.
We went to many appointments and learned quickly that our
most immediate concern should be about his heart. Our baby had the classic
cardiovascular markers of kids with Williams Syndrome. We’d have to monitor him
closely and hope that the narrowing of his vessels didn’t get really bad. After
doing a few echocardiograms over the coming months, his doctors would see
whether he was on a dangerous trajectory or not. We had reason to hope, but we
knew that catheterizations were very likely, and if his aorta was significantly
narrow, he’d have to have open heart surgery like so many other babies with
Williams Syndrome. We hoped and prayed that we could put off any intervention
until he was bigger and stronger.
In May we got news that we weren’t expecting: his vessels
looked good! They hadn’t gotten any worse, and had maybe even gotten better! As
a doctor explained it to us, when it’s bad it usually presents itself as bad by
the time the child becomes as old as he was. We had, and continue to have, every
reason to believe that our child’s cardiac involvement will remain mild. Things
can change, but it’s likely that they won’t. At this point no one predicts that
he’ll have medical intervention for his heart.
It felt like a miracle, and I remembered those rosary beads.
Our baby got the stomach virus, but maybe Mary was working on something bigger
than I could even imagine at the time. Our child had Williams Syndrome from the
get-go; that wasn’t going to change. But as his vessels grew, they grew well
enough for him to be healthy from a cardiovascular standpoint.
I say all this to say that I believe in the power of prayer
and I’d like to ask for anyone who prays to say an extra one for someone whom I’ve
never met. I’m part of an online support group for parents of little ones with
Williams Syndrome. Right now, there is a little girl literally fighting for her
life in England. She’s just a little younger than our child and she kind of
looks like him. If you can, please say a prayer for her and her family because
they really need it. We are very lucky that we don’t have to ask for prayers
like that for our son so I’d like to ask for some for her. Thank you!
