On the Feast of St. William of Eskilsoe

When we were expecting our son, William, every medical professional who crossed our path counseled us that, at my age and with my history, I had "no business" bearing another child.

Good grief. (It gets old, ya know...)


But, coming from their perspective, I guess we understood their concern; they could only see the risk. But, it was no risk in our eyes; we knew God had the matter well in hand. So we smiled and nodded and told them we wouldn't sue them if the outcome was not perfect....

And a soon as we knew he was a little boy, we named our newest child William -- not for any of the great St. Williams in the history of the Church but, as a derivative standing for the phrase "Will of God." We had left our family size to His discretion, without caveats, long ago, and knew that our eleventh child's precious soul was on earth as a result of God's direct will. And it would be His will whether or not this little guy made it through to adulthood -- or even made it to just outside the womb.

We prayed he would make it. We prayed I would make it. We prayed that we'd both make it out, not only alive, but healthy. And it was God's will that we did. We're both here now, healthy and stinkin.



I'm not sure if any of those doctors who refused to call this little guy anything other than "the fetus" would change their mind about their original advice, seeing him now. Can you imagine? But it never worried us. We knew that, no matter what the outcome, leaving so important a thing in God's hands was no risk. And we're glad everything turned out the way it did ~ the way He'd planned all along. It was a hard road getting him here, but this child is the perfect example of crosses being blessings in disguise.

It's always good for us to remember that William's real moniker is Will of God.




We figure William can claim Christ the King Sunday as a name day, but we always give him the benefit of enjoying the namedays of all the St. Williams, too, including today's, William of Eskiloe, a saint special to the Catholic History of Denmark.

Happy Feast day to all the Williams out there!