My parents were Amish. Got married young, had five kids by the time my mom had turned 31. They were farmers, with cows to milk, fields to sow, gardens to grow.

David and his Amish family My oldest brother, Daniel, was born healthy. By his first birthday, he was walking and talking and laughing like any normal one-year old. One day, he was running a fever. The next moment, he was paralyzed and could no longer talk. My parents took him to the doctor, wondering what in the world was happening to their firstborn son. The doctor told my parents that they couldn’t tell what had happened. Take him home and see if he gets better, he said.

That’s not all.They did, but he never got better. He was permanently paralyzed, bound to a wheelchair and unable to talk. I can’t imagine how I would feel if that happened to my one-year-old son. I can’t imagine the stress it would put on my marriage. My mom remembers the days when I was a baby, crying my lungs out, and she couldn’t do anything about it. Daniel would be in severe pain, and she would have to tend to him. All the while, there were cows to milk, fields to sow, gardens to grow. I have no idea how my parents managed it all.

That’s not all. …

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