Miracle #1: "Sight Restored"

Rowan has been through so much...so very much in his short 10 years, a lot of it, life-threatening.  But what we have been going through over the past few weeks, is new, unparalleled.  The pit in my stomach has not left.  Sleep does not come to me. I do not even know how to rest my mind really. Rowan has battled crisis after crisis, involving system after system, from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet.  We have handed him over to doctors and surgeons, and waited, breathless for them to come tell us he made it through ok. We have cried in each others arms, and on our knees next to his hospital bed.  I cried out to God outside on the hospital roof, and even as I showered in the bathroom to hide my tears.

We have never given up hope though...NEVER.

Are we scared...you bet.   Sad...of course.  Angry...at times.

But we know those emotions, though human, are not to be the focus of our time.  That is counterintuitive to our own mental health, and certainly to us aiding in Rowan's recovery.  We need to be okay ourselves, in order to be there for him. 

When you do that...when you truly realize how helpless we really are...how much we need God...miracles happen.  I started writing scriptures on poster board and hanging them above Rowan's hospital bed.  I whispered those scriptures into Rowan's ears.  I recited them so many times, that as I woke up each morning, the words were immediately filling my thoughts and crossing my lips.

Then, miracles started happening...

MIRACLE #1

Psalm 146:8

The Lord gives sight to the blind.

I am not even sure if I had mentioned this at the time...there was so much going on and I had little time to post updates...but when Rowan first started waking up from his coma, he could not see us.  His eyes would either drift apart from each other, or stare straight through you.  It was so hard to witness.  You may have noticed it in some of the photos I posted.  It just wasn't Rowan.  The first few days that he started to wake up, he couldn't focus on your face, did not watch the tv, did not track people with his eyes.  CMV encephalitis can cause loss of vision, so this wasn't a total shock, just a big disappointment.  We had hoped it would spare his eyes.  Though hard to watch, we told ourselves, if he continued to wake up and recover, and the worst thing that happened was that he couldn't see...we would take that in a heart beat.

Seeing his eye lids open at all, in and of itself, was a miracle to us.  For five days we had watched him deteriorate mentally and physically, for five more days, we could only stare at him as he lay unresponsive, in a coma.  And when his eyes finally started to flutter, his limbs to move...we held our breath.  Many questions ran through our minds.  Would he see us, would he hear us, would he recognize us?  Could he talk, could he walk, could he remember anything from before the coma?  We didn't know the answers, and neither did his doctors.  All we could do was pray for a miracle, that his vision would return.

On the third day after he started waking up, I noticed Rowan staring towards the tv.  I had put on one of the hospital's relaxation videos, mainly for the calming music.  I was hoping it would soothe and heal him as he slept.  It happened to be a slideshow of cute pictures of puppies, set to relaxing music.  It seemed like he was staring at it for a good stretch of time, so I asked him.  "Rowan, can you see the tv?"  He nodded his head yes.  I asked him what he saw, and he quietly answered "two puppies".  then he closed his eyes and fell back asleep. 

Since that day, when he is awake and alert, Rowan has continued to be able to see us.  He can see across the room.  He can watch a movie on tv.  His eyesight has been restored.

We are calling this Miracle #1!


(to be continued...)