Tuesday, February 21, 2006

inspiration

As I sit here frustrated and feeling sorry for myself because my video game is acting up, so I can not play when I feel like it, I realize how stupid that is. So many people I know feel sorry for themselves, to all sorts of degrees, for all sorts of reasons. Such as : my husband doesn't do the dishes all weekend til Sunday night, I can't find the perfect man, I don't make enough money, I don't get the recognition I deserve, and so on and so on. Some of these just passing pity, others obsessive, I think of my sister and all the problems her children have. She calls me to vent but there is very little self pity in her. She wonders sometimes if she can handle anymore, but she finds a way and does not feel sorry for herself. All she has been through and going through with and for those boys, I really look up to her. Wish I had half of her integrety.
Her five year old son, J.J., was not expected to live when he was born. He spent the first two months of life in the hospital due to being premature. He has serious health problems and was not expected to ever walk or talk. We had a step brother with the same disorder and he never did. He passed away at age eleven with the mentality of a 3 month old baby. But she didn't just accept that, she worked with him and got him therapy. He is a very happy hyper little boy. He doesn't walk much.. the child runs everywhere. And he talks a million miles a minute. He has a limp, and learns different then other children. Doesnt hear well and has vision problems... but he doesnt notice that. So many surgeries I have lost count. But he has such a great joy in him, unexplainable, he is such an inspiration to me.
She also has a three year old, Shawn. No problems at birth, but contracted a virus at two months of age which has left him with severe asthma. He spends on average 3 weeks of each year in the hospital.
In August she gave birth to her fourth child, he is now six months old, Steven. When he was born his ankles were bent at a ninty degree angle from his position in the womb. Months of weekly trips to a doctor nine hours one way from her home, they would stretch and cast him. At three months of age they cut his tendoins and ankle bones in half and recast him for another two months. He will now wear braces on his legs 23 hours a day until he is five. This was his only hope to ever walk. They got through all that with him, and now on a routine visit for shots, they find that his soft spot on his skull has closed. So off they go to the neurosurgeon that works with J.J. Starting on a whole new adventure.
My son had the same condition as a baby and we got off very very lucky with him, whole nother story.
She has come through all these trials, and I can not remember a single time when she has ever mentioned anything more than "How much more can we handle."
So next time you want to pity yourself think of families that have so many reasons to do so, yet get up and greet each day with a smile and keep going, because they still have their children to hold and love, which is all they ever wanted to begin with.

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