What Really Matters?

Well it looks like we won’t have any adoption news this week. I just emailed to see if they heard anything and they hadn’t. It usually takes about 2 weeks for approval and she said she was sending it last week. So, I expected to hear by now. I’m trying to stay positive, but that makes me a little nervous.
Since my last post things have been a little hectic, but our weekend is light and I’m looking forward to refueling! It’s funny how God puts everything back in perspective when things start to make us crazy... When I wrote my last post I was pretty discouraged and things weren’t looking any better. On Tuesday I got a call from Mark asking me where the Visine was. He was home sleeping after work and his eyes were burning. He called back about 15 minutes later and said I needed to take him to the doctor. Unfortunately, my first response was not very sympathetic. I had a doctor appointment that I could not change later that day and I really couldn’t leave work. Honestly and shamefully, I was irritated. It was just one more thing to add to the stress of the week. On the other hand I also knew if he suggested the doctor then it had to be serious. So I rushed straight home to take him to the doctor. This gave me time for the irritation to subside and the worry to kick in. When I got there he was in obvious pain, had ice packs on his face, his nose was running, his face was red and swollen and he was “feeling” his way to the car. I had no idea what could be wrong and things started rushing through my mind. What if he won’t see again? What if he has some crazy disease I had never heard of? What if this is the beginning of a long hospital stay? We are finally getting over all of the follow-ups and healing from all the surgeries and such that have gone on this year.
We get to the doctor and I lead him in like a blind man. Now he can’t hear OR see!! The doctor gets him immediately in and forces his eyes open to put numbing drops in. They got better almost instantly, but the medicine wears off in 15 minutes. The doctor was able to determine he burned his eyes welding at work. Yes, he had protected his eyes, but apparently that doesn’t always work. He explained it as a sunburn in your eyeball and your nerve endings are exposed. Luckily, your eyes heal extremely quickly. We had to rush to the pharmacy to get his medicine before the numbing drops wore off and after a few hours of the medicine they improved dramatically and is doing fine now.
I felt like such an insensitive jerk. Everything that had been an issue the past week disappeared. None of it mattered anymore. Yes, the day was still stressful, I did make it to my appointment and everything is fine now, but it opened my eyes to what really matters. Yes, we all KNOW what really matters but sometimes, at least for me, I need to be reminded!!!

Allison started piano lessons this week. I am real excited about that! She, in turn, is trying to teach Brendan. Good intentions, we will see how that goes! The piano teacher called me to tell me how much she loved Allison! AWE! She will have her first recital in December!