Reality Check

Transparency and honesty.

These are benchmark traits called for in blogging. And when I began this blog, I made a commitment to stay engaged and to write regularly. Hence the large sign symbolically hanging over Embrace the Grace: "Transparency and Honesty Found Here."

But to be perfectly honest, I haven't wanted to be transparent during the past ten days of my life.

As I mentioned earlier, we experienced this corrective surgery last December with Kristin and the recovery is NOT an easy road. It's so hard to watch your children in pain and know there is nothing you can do to relieve the pain. This is their road to walk and all you can do is travel along beside them offering comfort to the best of your ability. We had hoped and prayed that Meagan's journey would be easier.

It isn't.

Here we are again with a list of medicines five columns across on the legal pad so we can keep up with the times they must be given. It has also been necessary to avoid dairy products during certain hours so the powerful antibiotic won't be compromised. So there goes instant breakfast meals packed with protein to speed the healing of the bones; Gatorade helps avoid dehydration but doesn't offer protein. AND we are trying to avoid nausea at ALL costs. So although I've never kept soda at our house, bottles of Sprite AND Seirra Mist are currently to be found in abundance on my counter!

She has developed an allergic reaction to the all-important plastic guard which cannot be removed from her mouth because it is literally "holding her upper jaw in place." So, she is joking her way through the massively swollen lips (and the pain which accompanies this reaction) by saying she looks like an add for a botox job gone terribly wrong. You should see the looks we get from people who are trying NOT to stare. She is just hoping someone will run into something before it's over. (Disclaimer: a warped sense of humor is hereditary.)

There are syringes of varying shapes and sizes lying around. Two for medicines; one reserved for broth; one for dairy items and cream of wheat; another for juices, tea, water; one more used just for rinsing her poor little mouth after "meals".

And when I got back from the office yesterday, she was running a slight fever. (Kristin had spent the day serving as nurse.) So today we will make the trek back to Orlando for the surgeon to poke and prod those pitiful lips in order to determine her progress. Sigh.

Then in the midst of all this: my microwave oven sparked wildly and died, the garbage disposal refuses to do anything more than offer a maddening hum and our lawn mower has decided that it would prefer the job of "very large door stop" this summer instead of lawn maintainer. (Why is it that the first thing to go green in the spring is weeds?!)

Princess Gracie got mad about the limited amount of attention she is receiving and left me a displeasing reminder that she is around this weekend; first time in two years. (That promptly landed her little behind in the kennel! Some things I just won't tolerate.)

Are you overwhelmed yet? Sorry, feel free to click out at any point because there is more!
These are the things going on just at our house. I haven't even begun the list involving extended family, church family, upcoming events, deadlines to be met.............well, you get the picture.

Sooooooo, what is the uplifting, edifying conclusion I've drawn from this place in our journey to share with you dear readers today?

Don't have one! No, really. Nothing! Nada! "No, not one. No, not one." (Only some of you older hymn singers will recognize those lyrics. That was meant to indicate the HYMN was older not that you were older. Smile.)

How's that for honesty and transparency? But some times, that's just the way it is and I did make a commitment, so there you go. I guess a good dose of humility comes with this too because I'm suddenly reminded just how limited I am and how much I must depend on others through prayer, a helping hand, words of encouragement. (Thanks, Robin for the fabulous black bean, pureed soup. Yummm.) And I am oh so very thankful to be part of a caring community of Christian friends at a moment like this.

If you happen to see me wandering around the grocery store, sporting a dazed expression and mumbling to myself, don't be alarmed. I'm probably just muttering a portion of scripture which I currently find to be one of my favorites: "....and it came to pass. (It did not come to stay.) It came to pass." Smile.

Hope your day is blessed!