Grateful Friday

We are home from the hospital and we can get everything back into balance around here.

There's a lot to be grateful for, modern medicine for one thing.  Wow.  So grateful.  I'm also grateful for...

kindness:

Yesterday and the day before, in the predawn while I was driving back to the hospital, I swung through the McDonald's drive thru for Diet Coke.  You know, like you do.  Both days the same teen-age/young adult guys with nose rings and scruffy grooming were working at the drive-thru windows.  They were just kind to me.  They looked me in the eyes, they smiled, they wished me a good day.  They had no idea that I was stressed/overwhelmed/on my way to the pediatric ICU.  They were just kind.  It was a good reminder to me that I don't know what other people are dealing with.  Maybe (probably) I looked a little harried but maybe they were just being nice to the lady at the drive thru window who was getting her Diet Coke.  I appreciated it.

humor:

Mark has decided lately he wanted to be in the military and be a pilot.  In the hospital, multiple people told Mark in encouraging ways that his diabetes won't stop him from being anything he wants to be or doing anything he wants to do.  "What do you want to do?"  they'd ask.

He'd say, "I was thinking of being a pilot."

They'd say, "Oh, well, you can't do that...or be in the military."

On the drive home from the hospital, Mark and I were talking about it and he said, "I'm basically Mulan."

I laughed so hard I almost choked on my Chick-fil-a.  (What can I say? Mark's been the only one eating real food.  It's been drive-thru cuisine around here for the rest of us--although I did eat a ziplock bag full of grapes for breakfast on the way to the hospital. )

empathy:

I had a realization within the past few years about empathy.  Christ knows how we feel because He "descended below all things."  One way that we can be like Him is to have trials and gain empathy for other people.  There is literally no other way to have empathy unless you go through stuff.

We met our endocrinologist.  He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes while serving a mission in Germany in 1977.  He was a beacon of light and understanding and so encouraging.

Also, Enoch and Jennifer and Boston came to visit us yesterday when we were home from the hospital.  Enoch coincidentally had a diabetic doctor appointment in SLC and they made the trip further out of their way to visit us.  It really meant a lot to me.

We told them all the things and Enoch showed us his insulin pump and answered our questions and spoke reassuring words to us.  He told Mark, "You can either just take care of it and have a good attitude or you can feel sorry for yourself and not take care of yourself and be miserable."

It's clear which route Enoch has taken and I'm grateful for his example of optimism and capability.  And his empathy.