Living with an angel on earth. His burden is not heavy

I’m Isabel Merino. I’ve been in Opus Dei for 25 years. I’m married with four children.

December 6, 2011

Tags: Cross, Suffering, Sickness, Children, difficulties Our youngest son, Inigo, was born on April 13, 2008. There were complications with the pregnancy, and I was hospitalized in the high-risk unit. One of the ultrasound scans showed that our baby had severe heart problems. We knew there was a 50-50 chance he would be born with some syndrome.

For the rest of the pregnancy I kept remembering how St Josemaria said, “If troubles come, you can be sure they are a proof of the Fatherly love God has for you” (The Forge, no. 815).
Nobody, not even I as his mother, wanted the best for our baby more than God did.

A few hours after he was born, we were told (and it was later confirmed by a chromosome test) that our son had Down Syndrome!
All those prayers, all that praying, all that begging God for our baby’s health… had it all gone for nothing? No! All that praying helped us to accept with joy the arrival of a special son, and to trust in God! All those prayers were heard, and at 5 months Inigo came through a life-or-death heart operation. God heard our prayers, and today our son is 3 years old and he fills us with happiness as we share our lives together day by day.

I have meditated a lot on something St Josemaria says in The Way: “ Accepting the will of God wholeheartedly is a sure way of finding joy and peace: happiness in the Cross. Then we realize that Christ's yoke is sweet and that his burden is not heavy” (no. 758).

I feel so lucky as his mother, and the whole family feels lucky too. I have to recognize that ever since Inigo was born I have felt closer to God, living as I do with an angel on earth.
I am more convinced every day that God leads us by the hand, and if we trust him he never lets us down.