Getting Some Perspective

Ready to type a post about how sick we all are again, I got an email that put everything into perspective. The contents of that email washed away all of the troubles of the day, well my troubles.

It doesn't matter any more that all we have done all day long is change stinky (nasty) diapers and vomit. My husband hasn't gotten much done work wise, but neither of us are complaining. My dream of the Calgon truck showing up in my driveway with a year's supply of "take me away" bubbles is frivolous. (I even had to take a break from this post to go clean up after Austin during his nap and bring him down on the couch next to me.)

The triplet email group I belong to is wonderful. Every day emails come in about dealing with multiples. Many of the suggestions come right on time for me. And now with about 18 months experience I'm able to contribute. Occasionally (I think only twice since I joined in May '05) we get a very sad email. Today, it was about the Beall triplets.

The Bealls are completely unfamiliar to me, but I feel like I know them so well. We found out about them from a post to the triplet group in February (about 2 weeks ago). They delivered 2 boys and 1 girl at 26 weeks gestation. They all weighed under 2 lbs. They have all three struggles since their birth, especially the boys. Not strong enough for surgery, they had to have a bedside procedure to remove the infections in their abdomens from the perforations that had developed in their bowels.

Yesterday afternoon, Aidan and Andrew passed away. Their little sister Ashlyn is still fighting and has had 3 good nights according to their CaringBridge site. Please pray for this family. And pray that little Ashlyn will get stronger every day. The NICU experience is hard. These parents will have to walk into the hospital every day knowing that they lost their precious little boys there, but they'll have to be strong for Ashlyn.

This really hits home with me and I guess that's why I feel like I know them. Our triplets only spent 3 more weeks in the womb and we had a totally different experience. Tyler gave us a scare, but he pulled through beautifully and even though I didn't keep details of every day, I remember that every day we took little (and sometimes big) steps forward. After the first week, we really never looked back.

Cancel the Calgon truck because I know I can handle us all being sick again.