Praying for Anton

For as long as I can remember, "special needs" children have been on my heart. In the 6th grade I petitioned to be allowed to work with the deaf community in my school as my "specials" subject instead of band or athletic events. I have an aunt that is an occupational therapist. In college I did my internship in special needs adoption (still close to my heart).

After college I worked at a preschool. I ended up also taking on a position during my lunch hour working with a special need little boy Alex. He had a heartbreaking condition called Epidermolysis bullosa. It is a rare genetic condition where " connective tissue disease causing blisters in the skin and mucosal membranes, with an incidence of 1/50,000. Its severity ranges from mild to lethal. It is caused by a mutation in the keratin or collagen gene". Since then, EB has been close to my heart. 


There is a family here in NC who have a son with EB. He was infact born just 1 day after Owen. I have been stalking/following their blog for years. 


This family has linked to another family of a child with EB. They actually just adopted him from Russia and within several weeks of coming to the US they realized he had a problem with aspirating while eating/drinking. This is something that is very very dangerous. 


So today little Anton (pictured above) is having surgery to insert a g-tube into his belly. This will allow his family to feed him through a tube instead of through his mouth- eliminating the aspiration issue! As you can imagine doing surgery on these kids with such severe skin issues is really really tricky for the medical staff and very unnerving for the family. 


Please join me in prayer for Anton and his family during this time. Their website is:
http://www.goodtimesdelgadostyle.blogspot.com/