Judy Reichart here.  Sorry if I haven't written in a while; our son, Ethan, has been sick, in the hospital, for what seems like the umpteenth time.  He just got out a few days ago; he is very weak.

Our son has Pelizaeus-Merzbacher syndrome, which has severely affected just about every area of his life.  Ethan is seriously disabled, both physically and mentally; he requires twenty four hour medical care.  If we can't do it, then home health care nurses come help, so we can have a break from the demands of caring for our child.

It all started two weeks ago.  Ethan had another danged seizure.  It was a bad one; it went on for at least fifteen minutes.  It was our worst nightmare coming true :  would he have more brain damage than he already has? 

Paramedics rushed Ethan to the hospital; he was in there for over two and a half weeks, fighting for life.  Thank God, he finally started getting better, and he's home now.  As I said, he's very weak; it's going to take him a while to get over this latest illness.

Ethan is glad to be home; you can tell in his smile or happy coos that he knows he's home.  He's glad to be back in his own room, in his bed, with all his favorite animal friends surrounding him.  "Lamby" is his favorite:  he's had him since he was very young; it's his best friend.

We are glad to have our son home, too.

We feel so blessed that God's allowed our son to live another day; any day he wakes up breathing (or not sick) is a huge blessing, a gift.  All we can do is lift our praises to Him for being so merciful to our famliy.

We still don't know what the future holds for Ethan.  However, we are going to make each day count, make each day memorable, not only for him, but the other members of our family. 

Ethan deserves to have the best in life, be happy, be included in all of our activities.  He is worth more than his disabilities or physical/mental problems; he is not them.  He is a little boy who lives with disability.  If people can't look past them, they're the ones with the problem, NOT us.

We don't want to have anything to do with people like this, people who are rude or inconsiderate to us or our son's needs.  We want the world to be accepting of Ethan; we want to teach people that even with severe disabilities, Ethan can (and does) contribute much to society.

Well, one of his alarms is going off again, so I must scoot, tend to him.  I will write in here again when I can.  Until later, this is Judy signing off!  Take care and God bless!

~Judy Reichart. :)