I've missed the anniversary by a few days. On July 15, 1976, Richard Toshio Sawyer went to be with Jesus after a two year battle with cancer. He was 9 years old. In our minds he will always be 9. It seems incredible that he would be 41 years old now had he lived.
About a year later, my mom wrote a little booklet called "Take Care of My Child for a While." It was based on a poem that I think I've quoted in this blog previously. I typed it up for her on ... gasp ... a typewriter and we copied it and saddle stitched it ourselves to be distributed at a local Cancer Aid thrift store. It was my first foray into publishing. The book was a memoir of Ricky's adoption and our foibles in fitting him into our Anglo family, and subsequent cancer treatment and succumbing to the disease.
When Marshall was born in July of 1977, Mom handed me a copy of the book, signed thus: Perhaps now you will know what it means to love someone so much it hurts.
I do. And Marshall and Lara do, too. And so do the other parents in one way or another.
God, as our Father because of what Jesus has done, loved us so much He sacrificially gave up His own Son. I won't go into all the theological ramifications, but the pain runs deep on so many levels there.
I hurt for the ongoing challenge that Leigh's Disease will bring to our next generation. I want to believe that God will bring something good from this, or that perhaps He will glorify Himself by miraculously healing Timmy. But maybe the miracle will be that He will take them (and us) through the challenge.
God chooses each life He has created for a purpose. So we will continue to pray and praise God that He has given Timmy to all of us...the unexpected miracle baby.
And I will remember the life of little Ricky, too. Sometime, read his favorite story about the giant in the garden. Since I'm being a bit maudlin - he always asked me to read him that story and it always made me cry...
