To look at our son, Oktavius D'Mariel, aged four, you wouldn't think anything was wrong at first glance: he has ten fingers and toes, a headful of curly black hair, huge eyes that miss nothing, and a smile that could light up the world; however, you will soon see that he cannot walk and is in a wheelchair.  

Doctors don't know what is wrong except to say that he has an unnamed syndrome that has caused both global and physical delays.  He is behind most kids his age: he is unable to talk, walk, feed or dress himself, and functions at about the 18-month level: he is like an older infant and is not toilet-trained.  Doctors don't know what he is going to be capable of doing; until then, all we can do is give him therapies to help him reach his fullest potential and to keep his seizures or susceptibility to pneumonia or other kinds of infection at bay.

We didn't know anything was wrong with Oktavius at first when he was born; the first inklings that something was wrong appeared when he was a few months old: he wasn't smiling and didn't seem to be focusing his eyes, plus he seemed floppy in nature, like a rag doll.  Doctors at first thought he had a genetic disease called Canavan's or something similar, but reports came back negative: he did not have it, much to our relief; however, the news wasn't good because we still didn't know what was going on with our son.  It was very frustrating.  Still is.

Every time we go to the doctor's, we hope for answers; so far, there have been none.  Besides his obvious physical, feeding, and developmental issues, Oktavius has seizures and periods of extreme low blood sugar levels that make him lethergic and hard to arouse.  It's as if he's a puzzle that we cannot seem to finish or figure out.

Oktavius is the only child we have.  We'd like to have another but are too scared to try again, for fear that our second child might have the same problems that Oktavius faces each and every day.  Until we get the answers, all we can do is try to help our boy and pray that the answers we are searching for come soon, so we can find even more ways to help him and treat whatever is wrong with him.  

Just keep Oktavius (and us, his parents) in your prayers; we could use a miracle!!  Thanks in advance and God bless!

~DuWayne and Robinette Hamilton, Kenosha, Wisconsin.