Tomi’s Time

Such an outcome for our previously healthy son was as remote to us as any star in space. We were new parents; the previous nine months saw nothing but pure delight, and we had no real perspective on just how utterly a life can change. But in a period of time that’s often measured in hours, Tomi went from typically sick–to seizure–to severely brain damaged, in a wave of strokes that would define the rest of his life. These events left Tomi in silence and darkness, disoriented and uncoordinated in the space around him, lost in the space within, seizing without control, and with a global development delay that has permanently returned our newborn baby to us.

This, however, is neither the end of the story nor the sum of all things–even though it hasn’t felt this way, at times. This is the point where Tomi’s end met new life and where recovery began for all of us. This is a way in which healing and recovery of one means the same for others, and this is why “perspective” for us (and arguably everyone else) is everything. So in these ways, what just happened to us is only the beginning.