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This is a very special day in our lives each year.  25 years ago our son Thomas was born on Christmas eve in Southern Maryland.  It was a great event, but one that was filled with loads of complications. He was born at 3:33 PM in the afternoon, and started to go down hill fast.  By 10 PM I was summoned to come back to the hospital from home. He ws dying.  I got in the car again and felt like a zombie. I had not slept in 2 days.  It was the coldest day on record in over 50 years, and even the gas froze up in my Subaru.  I had to drive 15 miles with my car bucking to make it back to the hospital.  I arrived at 11PM and was briefed by the doctors, and we waited for the Ambulance to arrive from Children's Hospital in DC.  It was too cold and windy for a life flight that night, and my son wasn't given any chance to live.  I had my son baptized immediately by the nurse in the intensive care ward.  he was then rushed away to a neo-natal intensive care ward in Children's Hospital.  That night was a Christmas morning unlike any I have ever lived through.  I was later stranded on the road for hours, and arrived home at 5 AM.  My wife Ellen was in one hospial because she had just had a c- section, and my son Thomas in another.  Mentally I was exhausted. When I awoke - the feeling of acceptance of the will of God numbed me.  The reality is that life is not always the way you want it to be.  Life is acceptance of all, not just the great stuff, but the entire package.  I felt blessed that I was given the strength to be there by the bedside, when he made a turn for the the good.  Thomas made a miraculous recovery.  This one son of mine ( we have 2 sons) has seen more than a few life events where he was a deaths door.   A year later after he was born, half the children in that ward started to die of AIDS - we had to go through months of testing.  Thank God it was negative.  Thomas is also a severe asthmatic, most of his early life was filled with constant emergency room visits, adrenaline shots, and severe troubled breathing.  Today this Christmas eve my son Thomas turns 25.  We have 2 sons, and each are gifts. 

For years I could never share this, but this was a Christmas gift unlike any other.  I never felt we could share how deep God's love is.  But it is awesome.  You see we could not have Children.  My wife had seen fertility specialists for years.  We had given up having our own child, and had decided to adopt.  The evening before we were to adopt a child with Catholic Charities at Irving Street in Washing DC... I had a dream.  In the dream the Blessed Mother was holding up a child.  I asked for that child, and she turned to me and said "Your wife is pregnant!  You do not need to adopt!"  I got up that morning, and shared the news with my wife, and our local priest.  Two weeks later the new came my wife was indeed pregnant.  My son Thomas was born on Christmas Eve.  He has turned out to be one of the greatest gifts one could hope for.  He delivered the gift of faith.  God exists, and he listens constantly to our prayers, our fears, and out thoughts.  He is with us in the darkest moments, and in our most joyous ones.  Last year, both sons graduated Catholic University in Washington DC.  It was a few blocks from Children's hospital where all the drama unfolded, and Irving Street, where we went to adopt so many years before is on campus.  Life is sometimes bitter sweet, but the grace of God is woven throughout the entire tapestry.  This is a time to give thanks and rejoice!   Let us not forget all those that are not celebrating to day, but wrapped in fear or dealing with sickness.  Pray for them, and remember to give thanks for all we have.  It has really taken 25 years before I could really even share this, but it needs to be shared.  God is real, and all about love.  He listens and loves always.

Merry Christmas to all!

John 3:16   "16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."