The way I see it...

I haven't posted one of my newspaper columns on here for awhile, so I thought I would.  Some of this is redundant from my previous post, so sorry about that. :)

Perspective

We were in Iowa City.  Again.  If you remember a couple of weeks ago I told you Blake’s blood pressure had been too high.  Our doctor decided because it hadn’t really budged that she wanted to bring us in for observation on Friday and she let us go home on Sunday morning.

It was a long 48 hours for both Blake and me.  He is at a tricky age because he just wants to go.  Blake is used to his brothers and sister to entertain him and play with him.  I’m pretty sure the entire weekend he was thinking, mom, you just aren’t that fun!

I did terrible in the hospital.  I got cranky.  The only thing they were really doing was taking his blood pressures every four hours and changed his dialysis prescription at night.  That means during the day we pretty much had nothing to do.  Let’s just say we walked.  A lot.  And thank goodness for the toy room otherwise I don’t know how we would have survived.

Amongst all my unhappy thoughts I had a moment.  Do you ever feed like God just gives you a kick in the pants when you need it?  I always have these moments of clarity and perspective when I’m at the hospital.  It always seems to be the perfect attitude adjustment.

I had seen a mom with her little girl throughout the day.  We had passed each other in the halls, acknowledged each other with a smile, but hadn’t spoken.  They ended up sitting in the toy room when we were in there, so I asked her what book she was reading and conversation followed from there.

It turns out that her five year old daughter started having seizures a month ago.  The doctors in her hometown thought they had it figured out, but the mom insisted on a cat scan.  It turned out that the little girl had a tumor on her brain.  The surgeons in Iowa City removed the cancerous tumor succesfully, but she was still having to do chemo.

The girl’s name was Faith.  They were in the hospital because she had completely stopped eating.  It broke my heart looking at her because she was just so sad.  The mom was trying to engage her in different activities, but there was such a saddness surrounding her.  The mom was telling me how she herself was having such a hard time because she had a two year old and nine month old at home.

I just kept looking at sweet little Faith with her brown hair and big brown eyes and just thought, what if that were Jenna?  I immediately put myself  in that position.

Shortly after our conversation, I decided to take a trip out to get my first real meal since I had arrived.  I cried all the way to the parking ramp.  I cried for that family.  I cried that I was so crabby about being there for high blood pressure when this little girl just had a tumor removed from her brain just recently.  I cried for all those sweet little innocent kiddos that shouldn’t have to go through all these different things, but do.

I saw something that said, “The things you take for granted someone else is praying for.”  You can imagine what is at the top of my list.  A healthy child is such a gift and an incredible blessing that should never be taken for granted, but that’s just the way I see it.