I left this morning to attend the Orphan care summit with everything seeming calm...the calm before the storm. By mid afternoon, I received a text from my non-texting husband that he was at the clinic with two of the kids getting x-rays. McKenna had hurt her ankle in gym class on Tuesday and had been complaining off and on about some pain. I had kept her home from school on Wednesday to give it a day to heal--assuming she had a sprain. It is so difficult for us to know what is ever really going on with McKenna--most people assume she is being overly dramatic when she does get hurt or sick. I thought I had learned by now that McKenna doesn't fake her pain very often but to her a little bit of pain goes a long way. Her anxiety disorder takes over and she is certain that we should be planning her funeral with every ache or pain. In fact if she really likes you, she may ask if she can be buried right beside you. I knew her pain was real but I was questioning the reality of anything serious being wrong with her foot. She begged to go to school today and insisted she felt better and so I sent her on the bus. To make the long story short, by the afternoon, she was in the doctors office with a foot that was broken! So, yes, I let my disabled daughter go two days with a broken foot before we had it checked out by a doctor...awww, another fine parenting moment.
I was convinced that Isaac's xray was going to be the one to show something serious. I fully expected that McKenna was going to be just fine and that Isaac would be promptly sent off to the hospital because of his pneumonia. Wrong on both counts. While Isaac's xray did show pneumonia, the doctor felt that things were getting better, not worse. We were relieved to know that we were able to treat his pneumonia at home effectively. There are times when we feel confident that our on the job medical knowledge is adequate to care for our medically fragile kids, and then there are times when I think "Who are we kidding..we don't know what we are doing..."
So, I made it through half of the first day of the conference--it was wonderful! I have so much to share about what I learned. I also was able to have an actual in person conversation with several fellow bloggers who have feel like old friends--and they were even more incredible in person!
So, I am reminded today that God does not call those who have it all together to adopt and to parent children with special needs--he calls those of us who often feel unprepared, inadequate and desperate for His help...I guess that is why He called me.
