5/23 11:20 am

The voice on the other end of the line was silent. The young woman had given birth to a boy three days before. A few hours later he started turning blue. He was transported to the medical facility at UC Davis. It was there, they discovered the wall separating the ventricles of his heart was missing.

My wife and I went to see him there. It had been many years since walking into such a place. Entering into the room lying in a tall crib was the boy. His head was covered with, what seemed like, a clear plastic cake dome. There was a large U-shape mouse hole cut out, which slipped around his neck. Oxygen was pumped inside.

Once they removed it and sat him up, there was no going back. The bond was instant and the feeling to protect and care for this child was overwhelming.

We had given the young woman financial assistance the last months of her pregnancy. I spoke first and her silence began to fade.

It seems that a woman who has the presents of understanding, they are unable to care for the child they love so dearly and makes the choice for the child and not themselves is something I have great admiration and honor for. It makes me go silent with deep appreciation. If I was in their place, would I be able to make the same choice. I do not know.

We met her at Davis with a few of her relatives. Watching her look at her baby, you could see how she loved her child, her baby boy. She asked what we would name him. My wife had picked out Matthew and told her so. The woman smile, so too was the name she would have given him.

And so the child became our son.