I have played or coached sports pretty much all my life except for maybe the first five years of my life so when I am faced with a challenge, sports analogies come to mind quickly.
This time, she took the air right out of my lungs. I did not see it coming.
My younger daughter, my Bear, has struggled with medical issues for essentially all of her 9.5 years of life. We are on this never-ending roller coaster ride where some days we are cruising along & then we seem to be stuck upside down for days, weeks, months at a time.
Currently, we are once again flipped upside down & in daily communications with her team of doctors in Ohio. This weekend we had to take a lot of extra steps per her doctors to get her body to get functioning a bit more normal….or at least, HER normal. She & I spent the day Sunday working on it & there were many signs that pointed us to how much her body does not function the way it should or even close.
My daughter reminds me often of how you never really know what is hiding behind someone’s smile. Most people that know my daughter comment on her smile that is always on her face, her upbeat personality & her positive attitude. The girl just shines. You would never look at her extremely athletic & healthy looking body attached to the big smile & believe that behind the scenes, she is fighting that body daily.
As I tucked her into bed last night, she looked at me & with the biggest & scared eyes & asked, “mom, what is wrong with my body that it won’t ever work right? It’s never going to, is it?”
And cue the mom tears…..
I never saw this coming but her frustrations & her fear were growing. To be honest, I was feeling the same way.
Caught off guard I asked her if she knew what a grand slam was; she did not understand the difference between just a homerun & a grand slam so we talked about the difference for a second.
“Well, Bear, we just have not hit our grand slam yet. But, we cannot quit now because if we quit walking up to the plate to try we will never find the right pitch to hit our grand slam. We just have to keep stepping up & trying until we do.”
We hugged for minutes, both with tears, but I smiled big when I heard her cute voice respond.
“I’ll keep swinging mom.”
Until Next Time~
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