Prayers for Corbin

If you are on Facebook, you may notice a lot of people who have children or loved ones who are seriously ill often put up community pages that allow people to check in and keep up with how the sick loved one is doing.

My sister in law followed a page like that.  I don't think she knew the family at all, but the facebook page is called Prayers for Corbin.   Corbin was born in April of this year and is a beautiful baby boy who happened to be born 7 weeks early AND was born with Trisomy 13.   If you aren't familiar with Trisomy 13, I encourage you to Google it.  Basically, it's a chromosome abnormality and most babies with it die within a year.   I had a colleague whose son was born with Trisomy 13 and he died within four hours of birth.  So, it was amazing that Corbin lived as long as he did.

I'm heartbroken to say that baby Corbin passed away this morning at a hospital in North Carolina.  I almost cried reading about it online, even though I've never met and most likely will never meet the family.  

But, this post isn't about heart ache.   You see, what amazed me most about reading Corbin's page was how strong his parents remained and how optimistic they were.  Even at the end, hours before he died, they remained hopeful but realistic.  In fact, today his mom posted and it was about how happy they were the last 24 hours.  Yes, they were obviously heartbroken that he was dying, but they were celebrating the amazing life he had.   He touched so many lives in his short 135 days and taught so many, many people about the power of love.   It's an amazing story, and I think the waves of peace and love that Corbin created will continue to ripple on, long after he's been off this planet.

I guess, in closing, my thought from this entire post is that you must remain positive about life.   I've had people tell me they can't believe how positive I remain about everything that I've been through in my life in terms of my health, my marriage, etc.   My answer is always, "someone else always has it worse than I do, and I'm thankful and grateful for what I have".     It's true.  Look at Corbin's parents.  Here they are, preparing for their only child to die, and she is choosing to celebrate, and not mourn.  I'm not saying they won't grieve.  How could they not.  I'm sure the tears would come.  I would be devastated by the loss of a child.  However, I am amazed by how strong they are and how they choose to honor Corbin's spirit.