OmaHeck: Christmas Miracles

Both the Holy Bible and the Book of Mormon teach readers that miracles will only cease when faith no longer exists. I am here to tell you that faith, if it endures long enough, can see miracles never expected.

Just last night, Cyndie and I were talking about Dane's increasing unwillingness to eat food, even cruddy, preservative- and sugar-laden offerings. His pallet includes a very few foods, or foods so altered from their normal presentation that they are rendered nearly unrecognizable (think Jennifer Grey after the nose job).

Our great fear is that we haven't planned our food storage to sufficiently accomodate his finickiness. That generations hence, readers of history will come upon the story of parents who watched their child starve to death not for lack of available food, rather for lack of available acceptable food. This must be what the loved ones of those with eating disorders feel. We both laughed and cried as we imagined his pleasant, but wholly unsubstantiated "Um, no thanks" in tandem with a hand wave and turned head as he withered away-an unnecessary tragedy.

Today after church, he bit into a piece of pecan brittle. That was miracle #1. Then he said he liked it. He was mostly eating the candy coating, but he'd taken in some nut as well. I offered him $1 to eat the nutty piece sitting in front of him. (I make this offer frequently, and if he had taken me up on it over the last 3 years, he'd probably have about $500--or I might have decided he was eating enough good foods and stopped, either way he'd be better off).

After the pay-for-performance incident, he grabbed another piece. Then I offered him some cashew brittle: "Have some cashew brittle, Dane" I said. "Geshuntiet!" he responded.

He wasn't as big a fan, win some, lose some, just glad to get one in the W column.

However, that wasn't the end of the miracles. Just a few minutes later, Dane tried 2 different kinds of grilled cheese sandwiches: one with colby jack cheese (not a true fan) and one with Kraft Singles (he was in Nirvana). Even asked for a second sandwich.

We're not completely celebrating yet, we're not sure he hasn't cashed in one of his other limited food choices for this newest outreach. But we have faith!