the story of matt

this is the story of matt.

this is a documentation of his precious life. this is a list of things that God is teaching each one of us through even His smallest creation. this is a blog of photos so that all of us can remember the time we had with him. this is a place where alyssa and i (amy) can invite you to join his short journey.

matt was born eight days ago to a 15 year old girl. our closest and dearest friends have become guardians over matt who would have otherwise gone directly into the custody of the state and likely institutionalized, as he is 'unadoptable'. on his second day of life, doctors discovered that the front part of matt's brain is just fluid, a rare condition known as hydraencephaly. this condition is terminal and matt was given only 6 to 12 months to live. you would never know that this would be his fate when you see him. he is beautiful, perfect, smooth skin, precious lips, eyes that open so widely that you just know he must be taking in everything. he responds to light, to noise, to touch, he cries when he is tired or hungry and is soothed by a pacifier and a good snug. he wiggles his arms, he kicks his legs, he does not enjoy cold wet wipes on his bottom but he loves long walks with the crew. he is everything you would expect a newborn to be. and we are all in love. smitten like a kitten. head over heels. in love.

the sacrifice that our friends are making is incredible but they will never tell you that. not ever. they will tell you that God tells us to care for the widows and orphans and that He has loudly called them to care for matt, the "least of these", a special needs baby born from an unwanted pregnancy. and we will walk alongside them, and as we do we are learning more than we could imagine.

alyssa is much much better with words than i ever dream to be. i can tell you that i am learning and learning from matt, but alyssa can actually write it down as opposed to me just stumbling over my thoughts! so between the two of us, and some occassional posts from "r", we will share his life.

please pray with us. pray for matt. pray that God's will will be done in this little guy's life, whatever His will is. we all know that we would love a miracle, but it truly would be a miracle. so if God is just using this little one to teach us and bring us joy for awhile, then pray for him. pray that he will not be in pain, that God will take him when it is time, and pray for matt's new family, that peace will be given them like never before through this entire process.

we will refrain from using his new family's entire names, so the guardian mom is "r", guardian dad is "s", guardian almost 5 year old sister is "e", and guardian 2 year old brother is "j".

this is the story of matt.