Perspective

By 7:00 pm, I truly felt that I had earned my pay check for the day. 

The only member of our family who got any sleep last night was the little guy.  The babe managed to pick up a stomach flu somewhere and was up all night with various issues, including vomiting, being too hot (otherwise known as a fever), not wanting to be alone in her room, and having sore legs.  I think my husband and I were up with her at least 10 times.  It felt like we had a newborn.

Needless to say, the babe wasn't going to school so I had both kids at home, all day.  One child was drained, wouldn't eat, and was generally out of it and grumpy, and the other had severe diaper rash and a constantly poopy diaper.  It was a very long day.

By the time my husband came home I was toast (mentally, physically and emotionally).  We sat down to eat our dinner and catch up on our 60 Minutes viewing.  We watched a story about David Axelrod (Senior Advisor to President Obama) and his daughter's battle with Epilepsy.  It made me cry.

I broke down and told my husband how hard it had been to keep cleaning and changing the little guy's bum/diaper and how at one point my son was so distressed I had started crying along with him.  I then held my baby for 5 minutes while he calmed himself down.  Now imagine what it would be like to watch your child have a seizure. 

Here I was crying over diaper rash and whining that I hadn't gotten any sleep because the babe had been throwing up all night.  And here are David Axelorod and his wife struggling to raise a daughter with Epilepsy for the past 28 years.  On a side note, Susan Axelrod and a few other women in similar situations started an organization, CURE (Citizens United for Research In Epilepsy), to raise money for research into the disease.

I know I talk about this a lot, but I realized YET AGAIN that I need to try and keep things in perspective.  We are so lucky to have our health (knock on wood) and are blessed to enjoy such stability in our daily lives.

While it tears me up to see my daughter throwing up or my son whithering in pain because of a raw bottom, it could be so, so, so much worse.  I'm glad we caught up on our 60 Minutes viewing.