Ever since I was little I wanted a sibling. Specifically, I wanted a little sister. I wanted someone to play with, to talk to, to braid hair with, and someone to help with their homework. Every day for a few years I prayed to God to give me a little sister. At one point I didn’t care if it was a boy or a girl, I just wanted to have a little sibling.

On Christmas morning, when I was 7 or 8, I was opening my presents with my parents. One of them was a box with a pair of pajamas and a note. I picked up the note. I can’t remember exactly what it said, but I knew it had, ” Mommy has a baby in her tummy. We don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl…”. I read it two or three times before I looked up at my mom and said ” SERIOUSLY?” over and over again. I was so happy! Months later we went to the doctor to see of it was a boy or a girl. IT WAS A GIRL! I was so happy I could barely contain it! When she was born I was the first to hold her besides Mom, Dad, and the nurses. I sat on a bench and held her. She barely opened her eyes and looked at me. I said, ” Hi Rosalie!”. She grinned at me.

Over time I noticed that she puked a lot. I mean, babies spit up sometimes and occasionally get sick, but this was excessive. As time went by we found out that she had gastroparesis, pseudo obstruction, cyclic vomiting syndrome, and sensory processing disorder. I didn’t understand what any of this meant. I remember thinking, ” What is all this stuff? Can’t she just be free of sickness? Why is she so sick?”.

I remember watching Miracles from Heaven, when one of the characters said something like, ” Maybe Anna’s sick because of her sins, or yours.”
The thought of that was so scary. What if I was the reason that she was so sick?! I mean, I was the one that prayed for her, I was the one that wanted her. But then I thought, what did I do to make this happen?
Since then I had accepted the Lord into my life and got baptized. Rosalie had also gotten a feeding tube, and I started to feel bad again.
I then remembered that God does everything for a reason, and along the way, Rosalie has met incredible doctors that have been a blessing to us.

Jeremiah 3:22
” ‘My wayward children,” says the Lord, come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts. “