Autobiographical Novel

Philip A. Gonzales is in the midst of writing his story from the trenches, raising his son with complex developmental and medical disabilities.

Says Gonzales,

ATTENDING THE MIRACLE came to me as a way of expressing some of the lessons I've learned, who I have become, what I have given and received, the suffering, and the elation in which I've participated.

ATTENDING THE MIRACLE is a brilliant, autobiographical novel about sacrificial giving, the labor of becoming, the double-edged sword of suffering, and the vaulting elation of success as a father fights for his son's survival through overwhelming developmental and medical crises.

Frank knew his life with Drew was measured differently, even considering Drew's stunning progress. Positive changes in their lives were measured by the most ordinary steps attached to the most extraordinary price tags. They were forced to measure negative circumstances in blinding sand storms. Personal relationships were measured in contact years; alternating cycles of uncertainty that withered any but the most ardent friendships. The measure and balance of giving and receiving could no longer be attached to presents, greeting cards, symbols of power. The asymmetrical measurements of giving and receiving were delineated in food, personal care, and healing. Short-term patterns could be seen only as a measure of the unknown. But long-range life patterns stood out as watch towers measuring a perfect horizon. Measurement itself mutates with each unmanageable event, but somehow regroups into comforting increments in the celebration of every positive event.