What is a Miracle?

24 years ago this coming June, We experienced a miracle.  Our third son Ryan was born via c-section.  He was 9 lbs and 8 oz. and at first sight he looked perfectly healthy.  Within minutes of his birth, he was losing oxygen rapidly and turning blue.  The nurses at the Waltham Hospital were amazing, they noticed something was wrong immediately.  Within the first hours of Ryan's life, he was intubated, my pediatrician was calling Children's hospital in Boston telling them to make a bed for him, baptized, put in what looked like a space capsule,  wheeled in so I could quickly see him, and then transported  to Children s Hospital.  At 1 a.m.in the morning, the doctors at Children's called my husband and told him, Ryan had a 5% chance of survival.  They had a new machine called E.C.M.O (extra corporeal membrane oxygenation) and they wanted him to go on this machine.  In 1988 when Ryan was born, under 50 babies at Children's had been treated by E.C.M.O, my husband told them to do whatever they could to save Ryan, and hours later Ryan was one of the first 50 babies at Children s Hospital to be saved by this wonderful machine.

He went from a 5% chance of living, to being a healthy near 24year old married man today.  Truly a Miracle.

Over 7 years ago, my mother was feeling sluggish, and having weakness in her left leg and arm.  On December 31, 2004, we took my mother to the Emergency Room and it was there that they told us she had a mass in her brain, and that she had cancer.  She had stage 4 Lung cancer that traveled to her brain.  Not a great prognosis.  We were told that 1 in 600 people survived this kind of cancer.  My mother is cancer free today.  What is even more a miracle is that two years after her brain and lung surgeries, she was diagnosed with stage 2 Colon cancer.  She is free of Colon cancer as well.  Another miracle.

She is a healthy 74year old grandmother of 22 today.

Both of these instances, Ryan and my mother are truly miracles.

But if someone asked me today, What is a Miracle?  I would say...."Today is a Miracle"  It is almost 70 degrees outside, the sun is shining, I have a roof over my head, food to eat, and people who love me.

If we all took the time to think about it, there are miracles that we miss everyday.  Yes Ryan and my mother are miracles, because they beat the odds that were against them, but there are people in war torn countries, and places decimated by weather, that are out there living and creating miracles as we speak.  They are persevering, rebuilding, believing, and beating the odds as well.  My wish is that everybody is able to see the miracles in their life.