The Tale of Zachary Willowbrook: A Leap Day Paradox

Chapter 20: Downward Spiral

Over the next few months, Stacy continued to notice deteriorations in Zachary's development. By October, he refused eating solid foods, so she put him back on the bottle again. By November, he stopped speaking. He would only cry and babble. By December, he lost his balance and could no longer walk. He could barely even crawl.

All through these months, Stacy has called both Dr. Miller and Dr. Langdon. Dr. Langdon made a special trip to Nimbleburg and examined him at the Nimbleburg Hosptial so that Stacy wouldn't have to travel with Zachary. After examining him, Dr. Langdon mentioned that he couldn't see anything, but he theorized that some of Zachary's brain mass was being affected. Whatever the gene was doing, it was affecting Zachary's learning and memory.

Christmas was bittersweet. While Stacy loved the company, she was quite worried about Zachary.

By January, Zachary couldn't even move his legs. All he could do was cry. And after being in and out of hospitals, not a single doctor could find out what was wrong with him.

As the weeks passed, taking care of Zachary became a full-time job. Stacy was beginning to experience sleepless nights again. "It's like he's a newborn again...." she wailed. Totally exhausted, she passed out on the ground, leaving David to tend to him. A while later, she woke up, full of tears.

"God is testing us, David," Stacy told him.

David, who was quite exhausted, rubbed his eyes." Ya think? I hope we pass...."

Because of the ordeal with Zachary, Audrey ended up missing Emma's ninth birthday party.

One day in February, Stacy called Nimbleburg Community Church. Out of options, Stacy weeped. This was all in God's hands now. When she called them, she asked if the pastors and elders could pray over their child and ask God to heal him. They agreed, so she went with David to take Zachary to the church. Audrey and Timothy were at school, and David had the whole week off.

Once at the church, the pastors led them into a small room with a table on it. The elders followed the pastors in and they closed the door.

Stacy laid Zachary on the table. One of the pastors then rubbed some oil on Zachary's head. After that, they all laid hands on Zachary and prayed over him. Stacy did the same and prayed with them.

After they finished praying, the senior pastor embraced Stacy and smiled. "Wait for the Lord," he told her.

Stacy nodded. "I will," she told him.

Over the course of a month, Zachary began crawling again. Despite being aged at eleven, he had the appearance of a 33-month old. While he still couldn't talk, he cried and babbled. Since the ordeal, he began using his pacifier again. Even after a month, his development was slow but sure.

Stacy tried to figure out what happened to Zachary. Was that gene trying to reverse the aging process? If so, it only did it to Zachary mentally, since his body was still growing very slowly.

By Audrey's ninth birthday, Zachary started walking again. While he lost his balance a couple times, he eventually did it.

One month later, he started speaking again. All he said at the time was "mama", but it was a start.

Stacy then remembered what the senior pastor said to her - "Wait for the Lord". This was just what he was talking about. Zachary's healing wasn't instantaneous, but gradual.

By June, Zachary was speaking just a couple more words than the month before. The school year was also done with Audrey and Timothy.

For Audrey's progress report, Mr. Wellington spoke very well about her. Her cursive was amazing, and he considered her to be the brightest student in his class. Her problem solving skills were beyond his expectations, her classroom participation was over the top and she was very friendly with every student. Even with the bullies, she handled them well. She was very creative, and overall, a very fun student to have, he wrote. Mr. Wellington concluded by saying that Audrey was ready for fourth grade.

Timothy was pretty much the same. Like Audrey, Mrs. Shellenberg had a lot of good things to say about Timothy. He was helpful, polite, kind and friendly. Whenever the toys needed to be put away, he was the first one to help. Mrs. Shellenberg concluded by saying that Timothy was ready for first grade.

During that month, Gina also gave birth to another baby, which was no surprise to Stacy. It was a boy. Brandan Robinson was born June 14, 2015.

By July, Zachary went back to using a sippy cup during the day. This was also a big month for Stacy. The sales of My Precious Little Gift of Time exceeded 75 million copies and was now number one on the New York Times bestseller list. At this time, David was putting the finishing touches on Investing God's Way. The book would be published in the fall. While Zachary said "mama" most of the time, he started saying a few new words.

By now, Audrey is not bothered anymore when she is asked to change Zachary's diaper. Since the ordeal in January, she had become a very good sport about it.

In August, Zachary at last gave up his pacifier again. Summer has once again come to an end for the Willowbrook children. Having spent much of the summer reading, Audrey looked forward to the fourth grade. Timothy was just as excited about the first grade.

There were not any real vacations that happened in the summer, since they wanted to focus on Zachary's recovery. For Zachary's sake, they stayed home and participated in a number of events at Nimbleburg Community Church.

Timothy's sixth birthday came. Stacy cried with joy as they ate the cake and ice cream. "My little Timmy is growing up!" she whispered.

Zachary, on the other hand, was not growing up. Well, at least not as fast as Stacy wanted. While Zachary should be starting middle school, he was instead just a toddler. A toddler that just turned 34 months. A toddler that was blissfully unaware of the challenges that awaited him. Being normal, his secondary education would've just begun. But Zachary was special, and he grew at his own pace - a sobering and peculiar reality that God has been showing Stacy since the day he was born.

The very next week, school started for Audrey and Timothy once again. Audrey ended up with Mrs. Tracy and Timothy ended up with Mrs. Baker, yet another teacher that his sister had before.

After the kids were dropped off, Stacy went home and did her normal morning routine with Zachary. She changed him, fed him breakfast, gave him a shower, cleaned him up and took him to Gina's for his play date.

This time, Zachary had two play dates. Jordan, who was now three-and-a-half, and Donna, who was 21 months old.

Both Gina and Stacy laughed with joy as they watched the kids play with each other.

"It's so cute!" Stacy said with a smile. "Usually, Zachary only has one to play with."

"I know," Gina said, nodding. "Now, wasn't something happening with Zachary before?"

"Yeah. It was pretty scary. It felt like Zachary was aging in reverse. At least his mind was. Now, I feel like he's 18 months again. He just started saying two-word sentences. I feel like he's starting over."

"Well, at least he's improving," Gina told her. "What you told me at the beginning of the year about him really scared me." Gina noticed that the kids were getting too noisy. "Donna, Jordan?" she called. "Please quiet down. Your baby brother and baby sister is taking a nap."

Stacy gave Gina a curious look. "Are you ever going to stop with the kids?"

Gina nodded. "Eventually." Gina then glanced at the clock. "It's almost time for me to get Brandan up. I just put Tina down for a nap, so she won't need to be nursed for a while."

Minutes later, Stacy left with Zachary, since Gina needed to nurse Brandan.

Later on in the day, Stacy picked up Audrey and Timothy. On the way home, Audrey shared with Stacy a little bit about Mrs. Tracy. She was another fan of Stacy, only she wasn't as crazy as Mrs. Linley about it. Audrey also mentioned how Mrs. Tracy was in the audience during the ABS morning show, on the day of the Zachary Willowbrook segment.

Over the next few months, Zachary developed slowly, but surely. Even though Zachary was pretty much relearning everything all over again, it didn't bother Stacy. What mattered was that Zachary would eventually learn and grow. By Christmas, Stacy noticed that Zachary had the intelligence of a 21 month old. Once again, Zachary could now set simple goals and throw a ball overhand. He could kick a ball forward and he could stack six blocks.

Towards the end of January, on January 29th, Emma reached a major milestone. She turned ten years old. With it being Emma's 10th birthday party, Audrey didn't want to miss it. Audrey was taken over to the Robinson house and she celebrated Emma's birthday. She ate cake and ice cream and had a lot of fun.

At the very beginning of February, Stacy was already planning for Zachary's third birthday. With Zachary's birthday only coming by once every four years, it had to be very big. It had to be very grand. Stacy would make sure that "her precious little gift of time" would have the most fun ever on his birthday.

At the same time, Stacy was putting the finishing touches on My Precious Little Gift of Time II - How I Survived Four Years of the Terrible Twos. The twos were indeed quite terrible. Especially towards the end. And with the increasing uncertainty of Zachary's unpredictable learning pattern, there's a possibility that she could very well experience them again.

February 29, 2016 loomed ever closer to the Willowbrook house. Numerous days spent planning. Making calls and arrangements for Zachary's big birthday bash. Planning the food, decorations, events and party favors.

With Zachary's twelfth birthday closely approaching, a chilling realization came over Stacy. From Zachary's newborn-like state a year ago, Zachary has just reached the understanding of a two year old. Now this would be okay if Zachary was turning two. But that was four years ago. Zachary was now turning three. To Stacy's horror, Zachary could possibly be like this for another four years, slowly learning and gradually reaching the mental age of three. Four more years of tantrums. Four more years of diapers. The Terrible Twos are now over. Zachary has just begun the Terrible Threes.