April's Turning 50 This Year

In just under three months, my sister-in-law April will be celebrating her 50th birthday. If we were talking about most people, this might not be "big" news, but we're talking about April, and April is different.

April wasn't supposed to live this long. She was supposed to be nothing but a memory by the time she turned 3 years old. April is severely retarded due to complications at birth. Doctors first told my mother-in-law that April would not live more than a couple of months, then they said she would not live past 3 or 4. Now I'm thinking about what to get her for a 50th birthday gift.

When my mother-in-law decided to make every sacrifice for April's benefit, little did she know that she would outlive two of the doctors who told her she was going to die. Little did she know that her special child would one day nearly be a senior citizen. Little did anyone know, 50 years later, that we would all be trying to decide if we should get her something cutesy or perhaps some sort of over the hill gift.

One thing for sure, come this April, we'll be partying up a storm celebrating the fact that one of God's most precious gifts is turning 50 years old.