Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares The Lord, "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."



Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Giggle Juice....

The most exciting part of surgery for both my girls is the part when they get their “giggle juice”…. Not the taste of it… but the effects of it. The taste is actually quite nasty, very bitter or so I’ve been told but the effects of it make memories that forever stay with us.

Lets take Tay for instance.. When she takes hers she sees multiple fingers instead of one, she sees zebras EVERYWHERE in the room (I almost started seeing them too!), she let all of us know just how big our noses really are and that they were not where they should be on our faces. Everything she saw… she saw multiple.. She laughed non stop!

Bri on the other hand gets a little scared when she takes hers.. She knows what to expect and she knows it will cause her to see things that aren’t there and even cause her to see multiple objects.. But it still scares her. She has sees elephants, clowns etc. This morning she saw multiple TV’s floating around the room, and started worrying. She started asking me, through mumbled words, “Can you see my panties?” “Do my feet stink?” “Why is my finger red and on fire??” (talking about the red light they put on her finger) then she starts getting scared.. I pray with her and it eases her mind for a few minutes but then Bri being the natural worrier that she is, (she gets it ALL from her daddy) starts getting scared again so I tell her “Bri.. Fear replaces faith, faith replaces fear.. Where there is faith there is no fear, where there is fear there is no faith..” She looks at me very intensely through her grogginess and ever so honestly says “Mom… where’d ya make that up from?… Where’d ya learn that at?” I said “Well… God Bri” and she says.. “Oh.. That was good, I knew you didn’t come up with that on your own!”

See… giggle juice brings out the best in all of us, the honest sometimes funny side of us. I don’t know how many more “giggle juice” doses my kids will have to take through out their lives but I am thankful for the memories that this “juice” gives us. As I look around the waiting room here at the hospital, I realize just how blessed we really are. I try to do this each time we take the girls in, not always easy but it helps me stay grounded and keeps me from throwing a pity party right here in the waiting room.. If I had balloons and streamers.. I might still throw one.. I know there are many parents out there who have children going through similar or worse struggles than what we face and I hope they too can find the joy in “giggle juice” as we have. Even though I was just informed by my ever so loving husband that I need to talk about how stressed I am… I think I’ll save that for another day..

Today Bri has gone back for a rectal / vaginal scope to check for a fistula between the two. A fistula is a small tear in between the two canals that allows stool to come through the vagina. We are praying there is not one there. When she was 4 months old she developed one and had to have a colostomy for 9 months to allow it to heal. If she has one today… that will be our end result.. A colostomy..