Miracle

[Karen Willmus]

This is my first day on this list and have been soaking in the archives.  I
thought you'd be interested in the first time I heard of the Camino:

My first son, James, was born with a heart defect which should have killed
him in the first few hours of life.  It had taken me six years and two
surgeries to get pregnant, and 18 hours of full labor followed by a C-
section to deliver him.  But when they took the baby from me to fly in the
helicopter to the Minneapolis Children's hospital, I told God I accepted
that the child was His and not mine, and that I would be OK with whatever
He had planned for little James.   Minutes before surgery, James was
baptised in the company of seven nurses and without going into more
details, the heart surgeons at the hospital assisted in a miracle.  James
is now 9 years old and a perfectly healthy, precociously clever, growing
boy.  (And I'm not just saying that because I'm his mother!)

Anyway, a few days after surgery as I sat with James as he lay in the bed
with as many as ten tubes stuck in him, I picked up a Smithsonian magazine
to read.  In it was an article on Santiago and the Camino.  Well, I can't
tell you exactly how, but I wasn't half way through the article before I
knew, -- fully certain -- that some day James and I would be making that
pilgrimage.  (And I'm not even Catholic and I've often scoffed at
purgatory, indulgences and relics.)

Oddly, the topic of Santiago and the Camino keeps returning to me, even
though I've never sought it out until now in joining the list.  For
instance, this Christmas in Florida, James was looking for shells on the
beach and when he found one of those types of shells from the Camino, he
exitedly showed it to me and told me that his teacher had told him it
was "his" kind of shell.

I'm not planning to take the pilgrimage any time soon.  James will need to
grow up a little more, and I'd like it to be his idea to go.  But I believe
with all my heart that someday he'll tell me he's going.  I only hope I'll
be able to keep up with him.  Until then, I'm really enjoying reading about
all of your experiences.

Karen Willmus
Minnesota