Annalizing

awww, don't those eyes over those big cheeks say it all?  I love this kid!   Aaron was born on Jan. 11, 2007, and was my first nephew, but now he is my 3rd little brother.  He has been through so much in his life, and has experienced more pain than I have.  He was born with an extremely short intestine and every day is a fight for life with this one.  Yet he has brought so much joy into my life and in the lives of everyone he comes across. When he first came to live with us, I was working 2 jobs and going to school and we shared a room.  He woke me up all through the night and early in the morning, but who could be mad waking up to his smile?

 That time before my mission was a special time of bonding between us.  I was able to learn with my mom how to take care of his insane daily medical life support, and I have never been so tired and overwhelmed, yet never been so happy and satisfied.  I am so glad he is with my parents right now, so glad that he gets the attention, care, and love he needs without which I doubt he'd have the will to survive for this long.  The doctors never thought he'd live after 2 weeks.  I thought about him and worried about him a lot on my mission, knowing I would probably never see him again when I left.  But I knew I had to go and that everything would turn out the way it should.  I kind of felt like a mother abandoning her child, which had pretty much already happened once to him.  I felt so empty, and wondered often if he would even remember me when I came home, and I hoped he would also adjust to my family and not feel like I had abandoned him too.  But when I stepped off the plane in Utah and saw my family, I knew in an instant that everything was fine, great really.  He remembered me, and fit in so well with my family.  His personality had emerged revealing a world of iron man, batman, superman, and transformers to me all over again.  The difference in the way he looked before I left and after I came back was astounding.  Some part of me knew that because I was faithful on my mission, my brother achieved and is still achieving the impossible.

Aaron loves everyone, even his mother who gave him birth, without any reservation, he loves those nurses who can never seem to keep their needles off of his body, he loves strangers he sees in the store, willing to give anyone and everyone who needs it, a hug and/or kiss.  Because of him, I have more fully realized that nursing is what I need to do with my life, I know without a doubt that miracles happen, and that God lives and loves us and will make our dreams come true even when we thought it was too late for any of that to happen.