Submitted by philip on
By Marilyn Stewart, Regional reporter
MARRERO – Born a twin at 24 weeks, Ernie Addison wasn’t expected to live past age 5.
Unable to care for his extensive needs, his family released him to the state. So, for the first three years of life, “home” was a hospital or institutional bed with tethers to multiple machines.
But today, Ernie has foster parents who made him their own and a church family who loves him. Together they see Ernie, now 15, not so much as a child of special needs, but as a God-given “ambassador of love.”
His foster parents searched for a church family who could walk beside them and found it at Ames Boulevard Baptist Church in Marrero.
Though autistic, non-verbal, and with significant developmental issues, Ernie’s life impacts everyone he meets.
“Ernie has taught a lot of people just what it means to love,” said Sherry Campbell, church member and friend.
Joe Sturino, deacon, said Ernie’s presence has touched everyone at the church. “Ernie has blossomed in the time he’s been here, but so has everybody else,” Sturino said.
The road to where Ernie is today – free of medical machinery, walking independently, and playing baseball in a special league – has been rife with both setbacks and joys.
While Ernie’s story is one of God’s faithfulness unto “the least of these,” it is also a romance as God brought together a couple, Tommy Blackmon – pastor of Norris Hill Baptist Church in Sicily Island, and Sharon Kelley Blackmon, Ernie’s foster mom – to complete the family that Ernie desperately needed.
THE JOURNEY HOME
It took two nurses and a respiratory therapist to lift 4-month-old Ernie, tied to a breathing tube, ventilator, feeding tube, I.V., and monitors, into Sharon Kelley’s lap the first day she saw him at Children’s Hospital, New Orleans, in 1998.
Single and in her thirties, Sharon Kelley – now Sharon Blackmon – was a music therapist who had designed and implemented a music program for the tiny babies in the hospital’s neo-natal intensive care unit.
Her first memory of Ernie was the knitted brow and worried look that marked his little face.
Ernie’s life hung by a thread as he battled complications from underdeveloped lungs, an inability to absorb liquid food, and a massive infection that meant surgery to remove much of his small intestine.
Over the next two and half years, Sharon spent so much time by Ernie’s side singing, bathing him, then dressing him in “real clothes” that the nursing staff dubbed her “Mom.”
“He could be in a dead sleep, and I would walk up to his bed and sing ‘hello’ to him softly, and his eyes would pop open,” Sharon recorded later in a personal account.
Three times Ernie stabilized enough to be moved to a nursing facility, only to return to the hospital within days at the edge of death.
“He fought so hard for his life, and with no advocates, and with only paid people around him,” Sharon said.
Sharon was spurred to advocacy for ventilator-dependent children like Ernie who ended up in not-kid-friendly facilities, sometimes in a room with an elderly Alzheimer’s patient.
After months of pleading and lobbying, she gave up, discouraged. A surprising breakthrough came when the doctor challenged Sharon to be Ernie’s foster mother, something she had not considered.
A series of setbacks came and Ernie’s life hung in the balance. At one point, a doctor scolded Sharon for her refusal to give up, insisting Ernie was dying.
Clinging to Ephesians 3:20 that God can do “abundantly beyond all that we think or ask,” Sharon’s resolve was strengthened.
After a months-long battle, Sharon welcomed Ernie, with his scarred, frail body and the battery of medical equipment that accompanied him, home.
‘ABUNDANTLY BEYOND’
Tommy Blackmon was a busy pastor and owner of a video production business when he and Sharon met.
When God’s will became clear that they should marry, Tommy resigned his church and closed his business so the newlyweds could stay in New Orleans near Ernie’s care providers.
A first marriage for each, the couple’s families were elated. Knowing the commitment that being Ernie’s legal guardians might require, Tommy said, “You rely on the Lord and know He’s going to lead you through.”
When Ernie plays baseball, Tommy said he feels “tremendous pride” though his son will never be able to hit the ball or run the bases without the help of a friend. “He brings us such joy,” Tommy said.
Moments when Ernie utters a very rare word or does something on his own like kneeling at the front of the sanctuary, make the couple know “that there’s more going on in his brain than you might think,” Tommy said.
Music – Ernie’s great love – makes him sway to its beat, and despite limitations, Ernie is able to communicate his emotions, wants, and humor.
Taylor Campbell, 15, was the object of Ernie’s teasing humor while watching a movie with him one day. Ernie reached up and untied Taylor’s shoelaces; waited until Taylor re-looped the laces; then untied them again.
Sherry Campbell, Taylor’s mother, said her son’s friendship with Ernie is molding him into a caring person with a heart for others, and wonders what God is preparing him for.
“Ernie has taught Taylor that it’s okay to be different,” Sherry Campbell said. “Taylor now often reaches out to help others in need.”
Tommy said he is amazed at the impact Ernie’s life makes on other people.
“It shows the value of every life.” Sharon said, “I wished my life had that kind of impact on others.”
With Ernie’s health progressing and the family no longer tied to New Orleans, Tommy hopes to pastor again. God proved faithful again this year when Ernie became a big brother.
Married five years and in their forties, Tommy and Sharon welcomed into their home a beautiful baby girl, Julia.