Perspective

I have a day to myself, oh, yes I do. E had a dental cleaning this morning, so I took the opportunity to take a day off and sit at home. Normally, I'd use the time to catch up on housecleaning and call it a day. But I promised myself that I'd do some things for ME this time around. And so, here I am, writing a long-due blog post. What else have I done today for me? Yes, laundry and dishes, but I also cut my nails. That sounds like such a silly, small thing, doesn't it? It's all about perspective.

I've realized more and more lately that everything in my world is about perspective. There are some times when I'm really proud to be able to say I have a decent perspective on a situation and sometimes, I miss the mark completely. TDH Man almost always has a perspective that I envy. He's a person that's open to what life throws at him; I can only think of one time when something threw him for a real loop and it's not something I'd care to have happen again. I struggle with keeping things in perspective, especially when it comes to the kids. G just turned three and he is quite the handful. I was blessed to have my first boy be relatively easy. Perhaps God made him that way because everything else in my life at the time he was born was complete chaos. G, on the other hand, has been a handful since the second he was conceived. I'm trying to learn to embrace that, to watch him as he grows and to revel in the gifts that God has given him even when they don't jive with what I'd like them to be. He's strong-willed? Perhaps that's God's gift to him to be able to persevere through the medical issues that are ahead of him (or even those that are already behind him). He's not affectionate? Perhaps that's God's gift to him so that he won't get his feelings hurt by others when they realize he has physical differences and when he does get to be close to someone, he's certain they love him for him. I don't know, but it's got to be in the perspective.

AD had her nine-month appointment yesterday and the pediatrician found a heart murmur. I smiled. Yes, you read that right: I smiled. Not because I'm happy that he found something that could potentially cause us to have to walk the same path we've walked with G, but because I know that this is part of God's plan. Perhaps AD has holes in her heart, just as G did and God put her in our family because her parents and brother have already gone down that path in life. Perspective.

So now, while I pray that our little girl doesn't have to go through open-heart surgery, I am grateful that we've done it before and we know what's ahead if that's what it comes to for her.