Moments before delivering our 4 day old son to the anesthesiologist to prepare for gastrointestinal surgery. Holden's X-rays revealed a blockage that concerned the surgeon enough to start prepping the OR immediately. It was following this procedure that the surgeon told us in a private waiting room that he believed Holden had Cystic Fibrosis. trying to break to Caitlin the ramifications of this diagnosis was nearly impossible. Our entire world came crashing down in an instant.
Later that night I expressed our utter devastation to our visitors, Bishop Murdock and Conor Riley. Knowing so early that our son would not have the health to serve a mission, may not ever get married, nor have children of his own was hard to digest. Instead of looking forward to these events he would be fighting to survive to adulthood. I felt like the greatest joys life has to offer were taken away from him. As I began to sob, Bishop Murdock asked me what kind of family my cousins with CF had. I understood right away why he asked. He knew that they would be one of the strongest, most loving and united families that I knew. They are. He asked Caitlin and I if we wouldn't be willing to have a special family like theirs, if we wouldn't be willing to be nurses to Holden, and take him to his doctor visits, and make sure we were doing all we could to keep him as healthy as possible. As quickly as our family vision had been taken away, Bishop Murdock's inspired words replaced it with a bigger and better one; one that involved sacrifice, heartache, and a complete dependence on our Heavenly Father.
