Insight

It seems our sweet Kiera has always had issues with her ears. As a baby she had recurrent ear infections and when she was a toddler she had ear tubes put in. After a couple of years, those fell out and she continued to get more ear infections. Another set was put in when she was 5, and one of the tubes came out a couple of years later. However, the tube in her left ear never came out after over 4 years (they are supposed to fall out on their own after a year or two.) So...back to the doctor, who recommended they take it out and put a paper patch over the hole in her eardrum. All of that would only take about 15 minutes but she would have to be put to sleep and it would have to be done in the hospital.

So...we left after 6:00 this morning and went to Primary Children's Hospital. All is well and Kiera woke up with a big smile on her face. But today I had a moment of reflection. Driving to the hospital I kept thinking, "Why does Kiera have to keep going through issues with her ears? And why did Makenna and Kasidee have issues with their teeth when they were babies? I'm so tired of medical problems! Why do we have to go through all of this?" And then I was immediately humbled as we sat in the waiting room and saw babies with tubes all over their bodies; babies who have had dozens of surgeries; and a baby who had to have an operation every week for the last 8 weeks.

Woah. My eyes teared up as I realized how very lucky we are. These medical "problems" my girls have had are really no big deal. They're routine and affect lots of kids. They're easily treatable and don't affect their quality of life. I was trapped in my own bubble of seeing my kids suffer and didn't focus on how healthy and blessed they are. I will hold my girls close tonight as we pray for the sweet kids we saw in the waiting room, and all the others who have such big mountains to climb....