Thank you

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is 'thank you', it will be enough.


And so, it seems, 4 weeks post-surgery a 'thank you' prayer is in order. On one of my first few outings out of the house during the recovery, Kevin and I went to church on Sunday and heard our pastor give a sermon about why it is important to step outside of the fenced in circle of "regular" human behavior- thoughts, actions, and emotions. He suggested that this step would lead you to your "spiritual" world that sometimes elicits a different response and doesn't always intersect with the world's expectations.

Which got me thinking.

And realizing that in the lead up to the surgery, those moments of asking why- why us, why now- or those moments of pure pouting- life isn't fair!- are the examples of the world's ways. How could I challenge myself to step outside of that comfort? I realized I could say 'thank you.'

Thank you for this baby, who's first ultrasound revealed the cyst that needed to be removed that would otherwise have gone undetected for who knows how long, as it's size indicated it'd already been there for quite some time.

Thank you for the doctor who presented us with our options-surgery or not, leading us to our first big decision-making moment as parents. Parents who will undoubtedly make many, many more BIG decisions in our future as Mom and Dad.

Thank you for the surgery day and the days surrounding it. We learned our first valuable parenting lesson- no matter how hard we pray, how much we hope and wish and want and worry- there are somethings in our child's life that aren't in our hands. This is ok. Actually, this is probably for the best! We learned that our job is to set up the best possible situation that we are capable of, then let go of it and leave the rest to the experts- the teachers, the coaches, the surgeons- and God, who will keep our child in the palm of His hand when we can not. This is a lesson we started learning at 19 weeks instead of 19 years. Nonetheless, it's a lesson we are grateful for.

And on a lighter note, thank you for each little baby roll or kick that comes at 2 or 5am, what a great way to help prepare us for the sleepless nights that lie ahead with a newborn. A newborn we only have to wait 17 more weeks to meet!