Gifts from God

I have a son named Easton, and most of his life has been healthy. He hasn't had to have anything except tubes in his ears and tonsils out. He crawled at 8 months old, he walked at 10 months old, and he ran by the time he was 13 months old and pretty much never slowed down. I'll admit he isn't the greatest eater in the world. He is probably the pickiest one, but as far as I know he is healthy. I thank God for that every day. I no longer take that for granted. It is a blessing that some people overlook. People that would rather be out drinking, partying, doping, or whatever else comes into their minds. People that give their children up on a whim, or beat them to death for asking for a drink of water in the middle of the night. The ones that don't want them and give them away because the weren't planned. Children are a gift from God. He puts every single one of them here on this earth for a reason. Healthy or not they are all here for a purpose and they are all human beings who deserve to be loved, cared for, and raised by responsible parents that wanted them to begin with.
I say all of this because my daughter has hydrocephalus. She has had three brain surgeries now, and she is only 16 months old. She has been put to sleep a total of 5 times in her life and two of those were yesterday. She is so amazingly strong. Tuesday was an ordinary day and she was fine. She laughed, played, giggled, ate, drank, and was as happy as any normal 16 month old baby. Tuesday night she went to bed around 9pm. At 1am we were  up because she woke up crying. It took us a little while to calm her down and get her back to bed. She was drawing her legs up like she had a tummy ache. Finally back to sleep about 2, but that wasn't the end of it. Thirty minutes later back awake and fussy again. She was in the bed between us and I raised her up to see if it would help her feel better. That's when she threw up all over me, the bed, and herself. Since I had been a little nauseous a few days before this I figured she had caught it from me. She seemed to ease up a little after this and slept for about three hours. Then it was back up really fussy again. We got Easton to school and headed for LeBonheur. The hour and a half trip seemed like an eternity. Alyssa got extremely fussy as we made it to hwy 55. She was in pain and couldn't quit crying. She kept putting her little hands up to her head and crying out. She rubbed and rubbed her little eyes till they were red as apples. We get to LeBonheur and through her discomfort she had to endure being weighed and measured and temperature taken in places no one likes. She had to be completely still for a CT scan to be administered and then x-rays to be taken. All the while not understanding why these strange people were holding her down. Not understanding why they wanted to hurt her. Especially when she had to have her IV put into her tiny little hands where her veins are hard to see and poke. Then be put to sleep for half hour for an MRI. And before surgery was able to begin she was uncontrollably screaming and crying from the pressure in her head. I feared it would cause her more damage. The neurosurgeon got on the ball and she was finally put to sleep yet again for an hour and a half for her third brain surgery. In recovery she opens her swelled little eyes and looks up at me and says in a week voice "Hi." Then a small fraction of a smile is sent my way. She closes her lids and rest a while longer. She didn't want to be touched at this point. Every time someone even me and daddy would touch her she would cry out in protest. She literally wanted to be left alone. Finally I started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to her softly and she calmed down. We got back to our room where family was waiting anxiously to see her. She spoke to everyone with her little Hi. She says Hi all the time. Her favorite toy is Elmo and she tells him Hi a million times a day. We are home now. Only to hope that this time will be the last. Only to hope that this shunt revision will last her a lifetime. A LONG lifetime. It is so hard to see her go through so much and see her delays, yet I feel so blessed to be a part of her life. I thank God for her everyday, and hope he continues to let her remain in our lives for a very long time. I will never take being her mom or Easton's mom for granted. They are my Gifts from God. They are my heart outside my body walking around. I would do anything in this world for them. I can't understand why any parent wouldn't do that for their child. Be thankful when you are blessed with a healthy child, and if you happen to get blessed with a special one from above be thankful for that too. God chose me to be Alyssa's mom, and I wouldn't change that for all the other children in the world.