Sunday morning solace...

I truly love my Sunday mornings when the house is asleep, a time for me to reflect and prepare spiritually for the day.

Yesterday ended up being a pretty lazy day, but it is on my mind, reminding me of just how very blessed we are.

Yesterday one of the families from Ethan's Make a Wish trip were holding a blood drive. We went down to support them, not intending to donate since they won't take Terry's British "mad cow" blood, and I figured I might be anemic because I have been pretty tired the past week (I know, who wouldn't be with a child with pneumonia getting albuteral treatments and being super hyper). They had an empty slot so I figured I would at least do the finger stick....well, I ended up donating. It wasn't bad at all for my first time, having had four kids I wasn't a stranger to having a needle stuck in my arm and the phlebotomysts are WAY better at it than the nurses in L&D! I did get a little woozy at the end, but a little juice and crackers and it was all good.

We sat and talked with two of the families from our trip and it was awesome to see how well their kids were doing.....Alex is almost two years post transplant, and Dana will be finished with treatment for leukemia in just a couple months.

I was not prepared for how I would feel when we left the cool air conditioned room and slammed with 104 degree heat. I was so sick I thought I might need to borrow Ethan's wheelchair. And the rest of the day was spent recovering.....but I KNOW how worth it it was....I may have spent 1 day sick, not able to do much, but it reminds me of how much time these kids spent sick, and how much these blood donations mean to their lives.....they wouldn't have made it with out people willing to go through what I did, it is SOOOOO worth the day sick to save a life. And I am so grateful for my health, for the health of my husband and children and that even though limited as Ethan is, he is healthy and we don't have to live in a hospital for any length of time. We are so very blessed!