Recently the son of some close friends of mine had to take their son in for surgery. He was getting his clef palette repaired and all went swimmingly. Well, a day later they got to take him home only to return later that night. He was having trouble breathing and so they have to operate on him again. This little boy is so fragile at times, it is truly amazing to think about all this little guy has had to endure over the first year of his life and how adorable he is. So many surgeries and trips to the hospital. If you go to William's Page under my links to the side, you can read his journey.
This caused me to think about how much my own kids mean to me. While I've had my share of loss and misfortunes, I have been fortunate that my son and daughter never had anything as serious as surgery to deal with. The scariest thing I've gone through with my kids was when my daughter was just 4 weeks old. We had traveled over the mountain pass to see my family and introduce them to their lates grandchild. Well, she had trouble adjusting to the altitude change and built up a lot of excess air and gas inside her. This caused her little tummy to hurt and she struggled to eat. It got to the point where she hadn't eaten in almost 24 hours. We took her to the local ER and spent several hours there. She had become dehydrated and so they had to stick an IV in her. This was no easy task as she was so tiny and so it took them forever to complete the procedure. After another couple of hours, she was on the end and began to eat little by little. Needless to say, she mended just fine.
There are few things in this world more heartbreaking than seeing a child in pain. From a scraped knee to a child connected to all kinds of tubes, they're the most bittersweet moments. Your heart breaks for them and then cheers for them as they come out on the other side. It's those moments that make me smile and realize that there is someone up there looking out for us all. I've known at least two other couples that have had to face the nightmare of NICU. One family had a happy ending, while another did not. I guess life is just that way and there is no telling what kind of happiness or sadness awaits us. We cross our fingers and roll the dice. Whatever issues come our way we must make the decision to let it get the best of us, or get through it and feel stronger for it. For all those moments that kids drive us crazy, they are far outweighed by the sweet ones.
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