Hannah Collins

Fast forward 6 years and our beautiful 5 1/2 year old boy continues to write his own story. For 6 years we have sat through doctors giving us gut wrenching reports and telling us what Jude’s future would look like. And for 6 years The Lord has given us miracle after miracle and proved every word from the enemy to be a lie. But they told me 5 1/2 years ago that my baby would maybe live for two weeks and sent him home on hospice and morphine and here we are.

At the conference we get to hear about the current research taking place, where we stand with the clinical trial and Jude gets to be seen by world renowned doctors. Due to the fact that our Rhizo family has grown and space at the conference is limited, we can only take two people to stay on the campus outside of Sully, Jude and myself. We can’t wait to see our Rhizo family, hear more about the research being done and spend time with Florida family! His doctor said “I was hoping this would limit his hospitalizations but what I didn’t expect is that it would increase his breathing so much.

While going to school and learning all you can is amazing, you have no idea how much you can learn by just picking it up and learning to focus on the beautiful life around you. A day at home with your kids, a trip to the park, a road trip, birthday parties, weddings, your home, the breath taking world all around us or even a medical trip in my case. Once you’ve taken the time to learn about your camera, lighting and you have the eye to find the beautiful moments taking place in you life daily, you got it! Whether you’re a mom, a caregiver, work a full time job, a traveler…whoever you are, grab a camera, look for the beauty, the moments you want to remember, the place you want to go back to and snap the photo.

And on this day four years ago, Jude’s genetic doctor in Delaware walked into the room where we were prepping him for his MRI and told us the final results were in. I’ve watched this little boy face battles that I feel would break me down and with so much strength, bravery and JOY. If you’ve ever spent a day with Jude Sullivan Peters you would say “what a happy little boy that loves to dance, laugh and enjoy his life. To know Jude is to love him, to know him is to know joy amongst pain, strength even in moments of weakness.