The things you see

Every time I visit CHOP I always come away from the experience, no matter how terribly our appointment went, with a renewed sense of relief. For a couple reasons. The first is that I know my kids are in the best pediatric hands in the country. That is a huge relief. The second is that my kiddos manage to do better and better at what they struggle with, even if the increments of measurement are small. The final, and probably most renewing, cause of my relief is knowing how much worse life could have been for my kids. At CHOP they treat it all. We have seen so many diagnoses ranging from things like leukemia to very, very rare and disfiguring diseases like progeria. You can't go to the hospital without feeling so sad and so relieved at the same time.

I don't know if I ever "blogged" about this before but I had the name Grace picked out for years and years. The reason I always loved her name is because the saying that bounces around inside my head almost every day is "there but for the Grace of God go I". I loved it when I had to battle infertility. I loved it whenever I have heard of something tragic or heartbreaking or unexpected. It just resonates for me. And now I find myself thinking that thought almost every day. Had God not graced me so much my life could have been so much harder and my children's lives could have been so much more of a struggle.

So for this I am thankful.