We have been in and out of various ER's and hospital clinics with our children to know that there are angels among us with each trip. I mostly try to watch for the opportunities to encourage other parents but often times it is me who is being encouraged.
Last week we experienced two trips to the ER with an asthma flare-up for Miss Ellie. The second visit resulted in another over-night hospitalization and another pneumonia diagnosis (well at first anyway). The Children's Hospital was full, so Ellie and I experienced a new adventure - an ambulance ride across town in rush hour to the Peter Lougheed Hospital. Enter a set of angels -- our EMS guys. It's difficult to pin-point exactly what they did, but Ellie bounced back during the ride and chatted away to them. They enjoyed her "cuteness" and her cheerful chatter and we had a wonderful visit while we sat in traffic.
The doctor we saw at PLC suggested that perhaps the pneumonia wasn't pneumonia after-all - he said that's a difficult diagnosis for asthmatic kids to begin with. It looked like we were only going to be in one night which was a relief.
The reason this hospital night was more difficult than the past ones was because Ellie knew she wasn't at home, and she knew things weren't right. Perhaps I've been naive to think that Ellie and her love of all things social wouldn't be affected by all these visits to the doctor. I remember being very upset that we had to be at a hospital across town in a district of the city where we knew no one and had no family. I had to constantly remind myself that we would be okay.
It was amazing to see our family and friends rally around us yet again as we charted through waters never traversed. My underlying thoughts rolling through my head was "how do I do this with a baby!" Yet we did, and we're stronger for it.
One of the most wonderful parts of this story is that of another angel. She was my best friend from Grade 3 to Grade 6, and while we likely tried to remain friends through the changes of schools and the inevitable growing up that Jr. High brings, time passed and we grew up. The cool thing with Facebook and other social networking sites is the ability to reconnect with friends gone by, and we had the privilege of "finding" each other in Facebook land. (In the interest of divulging our ages, I won't confess how long it has been since I've seen her, but it's been at least 20 years).
Well this friend of mine messaged me and was willing to help in whatever way I needed - what a blessing! Just knowing that she was nearby was comforting since my family and friends were on the other side of the city and I was feeling very alone. I asked her to bring me lunch so I wouldn't have to leave Ellie, and she said it would be no problem. It was phenomenal - we haven't seen each other since we were teenagers and in that ugly/akward stage of life. While we've both grown up, have straight teeth and (thankfully) straight hair, truly time had not passed.
I've heard people say that true friends are friends for life and until lunch on Friday, I don't think I ever really understood the meaning of that. I was so blessed by a simple act of my friend bringing me lunch and visiting with my daughter and I - I pray that we all have friends like this.
