Any good parent is thankful for their children. A parent of a sick child is thankful their child is still alive. After several years of taking Christian and Julia's health for granted, the past two Thanksgivings, I have realized just how lucky I am. I have mentioned Children's Hospital while saying Grace the past two years. Its amazing what being the parent of a sick child will teach you.
I had identical, easy pregnancies with Christian and Julia. They were born exactly 26 months apart, both on the 11th. Their times of birth were very similar. Their birth weights were 1 lb different. They looked like twins. Olivia was born on the 24th of February, weighed the least of the three, and I had a very difficult pregnancy with her. She had a full head of dark brown hair (the other kids were redheads at birth). Olivia was bound and determined from conception, to be DIFFERENT.
How much does it break my heart when Olivia brings me a bottle of water and cries for me to open it? Words cannot even describe it. Or when she steals a juice box from Christian or Julia and then goes into a full coughing attack from one sip. And she knows its going to happen. Sometimes she will even spit it out because she's afraid to swallow. BUT, and the point of this whole blog is the BUT....I'm actually quite lucky. I really think all parents should just take a walk through the halls of Children's Hospital to have a appreciation of how lucky some of us are to have healthy children. My daughter can walk, she can dance, she can talk, she can fight with her brother and sister and not miss a beat, she can light up an entire room with her smile. She is going to LIVE a long life. Maybe it will take a while before she works out some issues, but at the end of the day her prognosis is she will live a long, full, normal life. I can't imagine the pain a parent of a terminally ill child must feel. And I consider myself truly blessed beyond words that Olivia is who she is.
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