My friend A gave birth on Wednesday to an extraordinarily handsome young man named A(2). Babies are mezmerizing...in their littleness is encompassed a whole world of potential about one's life and the world at large. And the newborns are so small sometimes people would rather not hold them, but they are missing out. How can one look at those tiny faces and not have some feeling in their heart.
And late last week my friend G. had himself a pair of unbelievably handsome twins. Girls, Eleanor and Quinn. These girls are pink, big and beautiful. Unfortunately in this past week they have learned that the twins have NKH (nonketotic hyperglycinemia) which means they cannot internally process proteins correctly, glycine (an amino acid) builds up in their blood, ammonia at high levels in their blood. The girls are non responsive now, after having been kicking for awhile. They are in a state of lethargy and are on life support in the NICU. The doctors say they might stay in this comatose state for 2 years before they die. Now they are in the throes of making some hard choices. Who can understand why these things happen. The affliction is one that lies dormant in our genes. And then when we marry someone, we may find out that the children have this high chance of suffering from this. It is an exceedingly rare disorder. One in 250,000 that it happens.
This could have happened to me.
And I went to visit a teen mom today. She seemed to need everything on the phone so I cleaned out my reserves for her. When I got there, she had all this new stuff that even I never had, but so what. Seems they are getting by.
And back to A's new A2. They also just learned that the state is making them pay 700 a month for health care and support for the 3 kids A's husband had with previous wife. The ex-wife had been on state aid until Aaron got a job (he was finishing an advanced degree)--now appropriately, the state is requiring him to support her. Their next paycheck will have over 800 in health insurance costs taken out (they are taking out 2 months at once) leaving them with less than a thousand to live on for the month... with rent consuming 80% of that. With a new born child in the house... I think my friend A is having trouble reconciling this all.
Just a game it seems sometimes. Land on the square says "Make it on 100 this month", Next square is "Ex wants to increase child support, pay 2000 (or 20,000) for lawyer". Game starts out as teenagers/young people having sex/getting married and watch all the tragedy and complications that can possibly bedraggle you...std's...financial responsibility for unintended childrens...(or marrying a guy who has to pay child support) This game would be great for the reproduction unit in health class. A kind of updated version of Life --2000's version. "Son's addicted to meth, pay 10,000 for rehab" "Daughter pregnant with no health insurance, pay either for abortion or for adoption", "New husband pays 1200/month in alimony and child support. Move at half speed for the next 20 turns", "Child born with incurable disease leaving them comatose, move back 5 spaces and lose 2 turns to grieve and make decision about their life support" "Wife cheats on you, blames you for inattentiveness and wants a divorce, either pay 25000 to fight for custody or pay 500 a month for child support" I will have to think up some happy cards too...
Sorry my post isn't happier...I am downtrodden by the news of my friend G, uplifted by the health and beauty not only of Anna's A. but also of Adeline.
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Life can really such sometimes. College has some similarities to your post. Everyone had some sort of hardship that they had to overcome to succeed in college. Some had financial problems, some had a hard time learning. Others had kids to take care of as they went to school. Some didn't fit in, or fit in too well and wanted to be left alone. Housing problems, roommate problems, boy/girlfriend dramas. Sure makes a person appreciate what they do have in life, and what they don't have to deal with.
It seems God allows it to build character. I was listening to Alistair Begg (http://www.truthforlife.org ) on the radio yesterday, and he said something very interesting: you can't fall asleep in the fire or in the deep water, but you sure can while laying down in the warm sun. God doesn't want us to sleep through life, which explains why we find ourselves in deep water or the fire.
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