Dylan Marie

This little beauty is Dylan Marie Polan, the daughter of my cousin, Anne, and her husband, Dave.  It is my great honor to share a birthday with this little cherub, a much anticipated and greatly celebrated birthday at that!  But Dylan's entrance into this world threw us all for a loop.  Dylan was born with Downs Syndrome, which was not discovered until her birth.  Dylan was also born with several heart issues and, at just a few days old, was flown from her home to a hospital in Las Vegas to begin what would be many long months of examination, procedures and surgeries.  She had two open heart surgeries before she was even six months old.

I remember when we first heard about Dylan's condition.  Isn't amazing what can move a heart half a country away?  I felt complete helplessness as I thought about that sweet baby and all that she would have to endure and as I thought about her parents and what they must be thinking and feeling.  I wanted to reach through the phone lines and just hold them.  The world seems too big sometimes, the distances too great.

But then a friend of mine in Houston called almost immediately with the name and number of her sister-in-law in Las Vegas, whose daughter is a heart patient at the same hospital where Dylan was.  Roxanne was able to check in on them regularly during their stay.  Dylan's name was added to prayer request lists from California to Georgia.  Suddenly the world was getting smaller.

Isn't it a miracle what happens we embrace each other in the love of Christ?  It's like a virtual bridge forms from one person to the next until we've covered half the globe.  How else can we do it, friends?  Certainly not on our own.  "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken."  Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 

You know who you are...the one that thinks you have to do it all alone.  Well, you're not fooling anyone and there is no trophy.  So get over it. 

Today Dylan celebrates her first birthday full of life and joy and blessing.  And she celebrates it upheld by as much love as reached out to her the day she was born...and more!  How good it is to be family, whether by blood or simply by heart.  To be neighbors, whether by proximity or simply by thought.  You are never far from mine, sweet Dylan.  Happy birthday!!

xoxo...Kelly