About Matthew Wulf
The Author
The doctors gave Matthew little hope to survive in the weeks following his birth. Diagnosed with a rare disorder, he was deaf, blind, metabolically impaired, and failing to thrive, all within his first month of life. It seemed that God had other plans for Matthew as events unfolded. Doors opened for him to see a research doctor in Spain, and miracles started happening, one after the other. His vision, hearing, and health gradually improved beyond expectations.
Determined to live, Matthew wanted to learn and discover all he could. Emerging from a world of deaf-blindness and his disorder’s seriousness, he grew, embracing life with all its possibilities. With the work of skilled teachers, he began to read and write and compose music. Matthew’s love for music and language opened new worlds, allowing him to express his otherwise hidden voice. His family supported his education in every way possible, and together they marked milestones of achievement, challenging every impossibility. By the end of sixth grade, Matthew tested at his actual grade level. He graduated from high school and was decorated and honored for his accomplishments in a room filled with teachers, friends, doctors, and supporters. Yet, for Matthew, it was never an easy path. Instead, it was one strewn with challenges, sometimes huge and seemingly impassable. But even the challenges inspired a faith that pulses through Matthew’s veins. In his book, Awake Not The Hungry, Matthew chronicles his progress in learning and understanding, his internal response to God’s call, along with his insights, all with a deep hope that it might inspire all who read the words of his life.
How Awake Not the Hungry Came to Be
He was more than a miracle. He was not even supposed to be alive and certainly not reading and writing. From conception, Matthew Andreas Wulf had a rare disease, Zellweger’s Spectrum Disorder (ZSD). Evident in the womb, his failure to thrive progressed after birth. With few functioning peroxisomes, no vision, no hearing, liver disease, and no brain myelination, certain death in six to twelve months was expected.
Yet His parents, led by God’s mercies, flew him to Barcelona, Spain to see the only researcher of his disease. Given a special supplement, within three weeks Matthew’s health turned and continually improved. At two years old his brain myelination was normal for his age. At five he was walking, and by eight, normal A/B waves were measured across his optic nerve. Matthew could see, and with hearing aids, he could hear. Remarkably, liver enzyme tests were normal. Matthew had the unyielding will and inner force to live.
Still, life was not anywhere near normal. Special education, communication devices, constant therapies, and a multitude of doctors filled the Wulf’s lives with unending stress. Revolving doors spun teachers, caregivers, and psychologists probing to analyze Matthew’s capacity to learn. The Wulfs worked as a family, taking Matthew everywhere to do and to see everything possible, showing him the world’s wonders before it was too late. From planetariums to gold mines, from the mountaintops to the oceans, Matthew absorbed information like a sponge. After completing fifth and sixth grades via home video school, psychological evaluations returned as “at grade level.” Educators and therapists were stunned!
In fourth grade, one literacy teacher suggested to Matthew that he write a book, perhaps collecting his writing to compile later. A week later, she asked if he had thought about the book, and what he might title it. Never deviating, Awake Not the Hungry became a reality in 2016, the year Matthew graduated from High School with honors.