Baby Carrot

Thank you all for the tremendous support that we received regarding Garrett’s surgery. We appreciate the cards, phone calls and visits, Garrett enjoyed them as well. He is doing better than he was this weekend. We have taken him off his Tylenol-3 and just give him regular Tylenol at night. He does have a cold and cough but that seems to be getting better too. We both have cabin fever! He has an appointment with the plastic surgeon tomorrow. Hopefully he won’t have to wear the arm splints after the appointment.

This experience has opened my eyes. Garrett and I went to Cook’s 2 days in a row. Both days I saw bravery and courage in the eyes of the children that were sick or there for procedures. They didn’t care what they looked like or that there was a tube coming out of their neck or stomach. They were happy to be going for a walk out of their room or that they are doing crafts in the lobby. One little boy had tubes and things attached to him but he had a big smile on his face as he was going for a wagon ride down the hall.

Why is it hard for us to find joy in little things and forget about what is going on around us? At that moment I envied that courageous little guy. He was in the moment and let everything else go.

I did see fear and love in the eyes of the parents. Some of them I could tell had been to the surgery room before and knew the drill. They looked tired, they needed a break. As a parent I wanted to give them a hug and tell them that it would all be okay. I didn’t know why they were there but I could tell that some of them had special needs children. The parents had it all together, they had a routine. I thought for a moment what I would do if we had a child that had special needs. After watching the other families I knew that I would do whatever I needed to do to be a good mom. Yes, it would be hard but what else could I do? There is no going back.

I will take a skin tag removal and hernia repair any day. We are very lucky to have such a wonderful little boy. I say all the time that we are blessed to have him in our life. But I have never asked why us? Why were we so blessed to have him in our life? Usually we ask why when something bad happens. Look around and be thankful for all of the things in your life.

Yesterday Garrett wanted to me to hold him. I sat down in the glider chair and held him close. He fell asleep; he hasn’t slept in my arms since he was a little baby. I closed my eyes and took it all in. I let the dirty laundry sit and I left the room a mess and held my baby. I stopped and listened to him breathe and snore.  He had a stuffy nose. Branden walked in and I could tell that he wanted to snuggle with Garrett too. He laid down on the sofa and I placed Garrett on his chest. They looked very peaceful. It felt good to take a moment and stop. Of course after awhile Garrett sat up and was off again.

Take time to slow down, you deserve it.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 29th, 2007 at 4:13 pm and is filed under Tidbits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.