The Greatest Gift

This coming Wednesday, August 19, Taylor will turn 11 years old. John and I bought her birthday present today - a Yamaha keyboard.

I imagine T will love her gift - music defines her. The keyboard, though, is a material thing. It holds the key to hours of happiness but not years of life. So in honor of my sister's birthday this year, I hope you'll consider making a gift to Taylor's Tale, thus enabling the miracle workers that are the Batten disease researchers to unlock the secrets to this tragic disease and write the happy ending for all children facing it. Supporting the search for a cure is easy: visit our Web site here to make a secure donation online.

We took a leap of faith last month when we joined our funding partners in awarding four grants to support research over the next year. We've taken on a big funding commitment in a difficult economy, but Batten disease is not waiting on the economy to get better. It continues to march on, so we chose to take a leap and believe, rather than hold back and simply watch it fade into the distance while more and more children lose their battles with it.

Yesterday, John and I stole away to the western North Carolina mountains to Mt. Mitchell, the tallest peak east of the Mississippi at over 6,600 feet. As we hiked through its forests and meadows, the clean mountain air and soaring views awakened me; reminded me that there is a God and that there are miracles. There are different definitions of miracles - dictionary.com lists four:

• an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.
• such an effect or event manifesting or considered as a work of God.
• a wonder; a marvel.
• a wonderful or surpassing example of some quality: a miracle of modern acoustics.

Curing Batten disease will be an extraordinary event in the physical world, but such a feat does not surpass all known human or natural powers. The scientists who study Batten disease have the power to reach the summit; you and I must simply give them food and water for the journey. And when they do ascend that final peak and thus give life to those children whose dreams are too vast even for the seemingly endless landscape of the Appalachian Mountains, it will be a wonder; a marvel; and I will get on my knees and give thanks to God for the miracle He has created.