The moment I found out that I was pregnant, it was as if my world stopped. I knew I was going to have my baby, but other than that, I didn’t know what to do. I was absolutely sure of just one thing—my life, as I know it, was about to change. Little did I know that the change was going to be on a whole other level.

I ended the year 2007 in one of the worst ways possible. On December 31st, my son Matthew started showing symptoms of his current condition. That morning, he was unconsciously doing some jerky movements. At first, I dismissed it as a newborn quirk, as he was only two weeks old. As the day went on, the jerks started to become too close to each other—from two-hour intervals, down to one hour in between.

As we were hearing Mass that night, it started happening 30 minutes apart, and much stronger. I can never forget the look on his face. It was as if he wasn’t there. In the middle of singing Ama Namin, tears started rolling down my face and onto his, as I held him tightly to my chest.

A couple of hours later saw us at the emergency room. Surrounded by doctors, I was still uneasy, because no one knew yet what was happening to him. All we could do was wait. [Read more...]