What's Normal?

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I have had a lot of time to read my friends blogs lately. It's so fun reading about all of the great things that they have gotten to do this summer. It's so great looking at my friends family pictures on Facebook and seeing all of their smiling faces. It just makes me wonder...

What is normal? Is normal having a strict schedule that you live by every single day? Is it flying by the seat of your pants? Is it making crafts and singing with your kids everyday, or working hard at your job to give them everything.

For us, right now, doing what we are doing... that's normal. Lots of tests. Talking in a language I hardly understand (doctor language) and watching things on my children that I never would have seen before this. [Do you know what your oxygen sats are? Do you know your childs blood pressure every 30 mins?) To us, normal isn't having birthdays as milestones (even though they are still very exciting) or each passing grade. To us we see a lot of doctors, and we have made them our friends. We know a lot of surgeries. We get to celebrate all of the things that no one thought we would be able to do! Sometimes I think when we are "normal" we take for granted all of the "normal" things.

Once we are done with this journey, we will not only have our cardiac team as our hospital family, but we have gained a whole new set of neurological family members as well. Don't forget the wonderful nurses that we have gotten so close with. This is normal to us. Roaming around the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and feeling comfortable enough to rummage through the pantry is normal. Pushing an IV pole to get exercise is normal. This is our life and I wouldn't change most of it because without it, we would have missed out on so many wonderful things! (tell me when the last time you celebrated the fact that your child breathed on his own?!)

Do me a favor, after you get done reading this... call someone you love, look at your children, shoot look at yourself and realize the beauty in life. We have a lot to be thankful for and we have a lot of time to forget about it. Don't forget how hard we work without even knowing it. Don't forget how beautifully this machine we live in works together to give us everything around us. We are all normal. We are all beautiful.

Dominic my love, thank you for keeping perspective in my life. You are the most wonderful, beautiful part of my life. You have taught me that there just isn't room for anything other than love and forgiveness. Thank you for all you have given me and our family.

xoxo
-whit