I haven’t been here this week. I apologize for that. I owe you all of ton of comments and a post on what has been happening in our life. A few things happened this week that gave me perspective on life, I am about to share them with you.
The first thing that happened was that my son had eye surgery. He has/had a condition call Strabismus. A short definition on this is: Strabismus, more commonly known as cross-eyed or wall-eyed, is a vision condition in which a person can not align both eyes simultaneously under normal conditions. One or both of the eyes may turn in, out, up or down. Strabismus always requires appropriate evaluation and treatment. Children do not outgrow strabismus!
What did this mean for us? It mean that my sweet little 3 year old Cutie Bug had to have eye surgery. He was born with his eye muscles in the wrong place, the doctor had to go in and move the muscles to the right place… Patching would never help, glasses would never help, surgery was a must. Ignoring this condition would mean no quality of life for him…ever. No driving, no soccer, no walking to school, nothing.
I meant to blog about this before it happened, and just never found the time to do that, so I am sorry that I didn’t let you all know before hand. But I learned many things this week that I must share with you all, I learned a lot about perspective.
As we were sitting in the surgery office waiting for our turn I noticed a family. This family had a little girl with them and I noted that here eyes didn’t track right, so I figured that is why there were there right? After watching more, I noticed that this little girl had a tube in her neck, and about every 10 minutes her parents had to hook a vacuum up to this tube and drain stuff out of it. I started thinking how blessed I was to have a wonderful healthy 3 year old on my lap, and all he needed was his eyes fixed. After a short period, this family got up and went in the back, and all we could hear was a child, crying and crying, and crying. It took me a long time to figure out that this family, with the sweet little girl with the eye problems, and the trach tube, and the sparkle in her eyes anyway, was there because their second child had just come out from the same surgery that my son was about to have. They were there for the other child! Not the one I blindly assumed was the one in need of care. This family, who smiled at us while we were waiting with them, gave me a new meaning on perspective.
A second thing gave me a huge shot of perspective that day. After we got home, with my son who marched through this surgery like it was no big deal, I read a post. This post was from MckMama, you know Stellan and the heart miracle and all… Well MckMama put up a post titled I'm gonna miss this. If you only click on one link today, make it this one! I'm gonna miss this. To quote this post would make mine a mile longer than it already is. But you know I have to do it anyway: Here is what I learned from her:
I will not wish away their young years, always hoping to get more laundry done or other children dried off. I will relish each kiss, hug and song. I will leave their childhood behind with no regrets, no "I love you" unsaid, no cheek unkissed, no request to "Cuddle wif' me!" turned down. Even as the macaroni flies and the Sharpie stains my table, even when there are midnight wailers and globs of Desitin under my fingernails, I know...
...I know I'm gonna miss this.
This post gave me the best perspective I could have ever wished for.
Here is my Cutie Bug with crooked eyes. The next picture will be with perfect ones!
Thanks for hanging in there with me all!
Take me back to July 4, 2004. I had this one in a picture frame in the living room for ages. It is flat out just one of my favorite pictures of my daughter, she was 9 weeks old at the time. This picture was taken with my good old fashioned 35 mm camera, you know the kind you had to think for, and then develop the film from? I have a 70-210 zoom on that camera and that is how I could get so close. Going to have to dig that camera out here soon. 
