Perspectives

Life seems to be a continual string of events that are good or bad depending on the perspective that you see them at. Today was a St. Louis day, John had a check-up with both the GI department and nephrology, and we were once again reminded of the perspective of life that you see from the children's hospital.

John has lost weight again, but developmentally he continues to chug forward, so while it's not good, it isn't tragic either. We're adding in some extra calories to his night time formula and trying to encourage him to eat some more high calorie things. Seems kinda ironic in a household with adults who have been trying so hard to reduce calories, portions etc. The GI people are wondering if his weight is a part of his current kidney issue.

Ah the kidney issue, well John has hydronephrosis, basically his kidneys aren't able to rid themselves of all the urine that they make and some of it hangs out there. He's had it since he was born but lately it is worse and so all roads lead to surgery at the moment. Here's that perspective thing again though because John is right now the strongest that he has been in his life, he is 2 days shy of 6 months with no hospitalizations, a record for him, and he has his best chance to survive this big of a surgery right now. We will know next week exactly what surgery they are doing and when they are going to do it.

So today while we were at the hospital waiting to hear the news of what John's immediate future held, we passed a family with 2 little kids in strollers, and they stopped to talk to John because he was walking around in his gait trainer being oh so cute. A little later John and I were headed up to see the trains again and the dad from this family stopped to give John a sticker and talk to him again. A couple hours later John was in the bathroom with his dad getting his clothes changed, and the dad from this family came over to ask where he was, was he okay, and to bring him a Kit Kat. He wanted to tell me that his little boy was nearly 2 and has a syndrome that renders him unable to walk even as much as John does, and he was so happy to see another little guy out there doing so well and said that he would pray for John, and of course we will remember his little guy in our prayers too.

If the day comes that you are ever tempted to throw yourself a pity party go and visit the children's hospital for a while, you will find there a perspective on life that few other places show. While there is sickness, and sadness and those things of course, you will find a living example of faith, and people who despite the circumstances of their lives or their children's lives find a reason to smile and learn to enjoy the moments that they have with their kids. At the very beginning of John's life a very wise pastor reminded us that we were not at the hospital only to take care of our son, but to bring the hope of Christ to the people there. That is a perspective that we try to hold onto, and when it slips someone comes by to remind us!

We've been out of the hospital long enough that it's hard to think about John having to go back in, but when we remember that we will be there not only for ourselves, we find the strength to prepare and ultimately the strength to go.