Counting Our Blessings

(S., up on his feet again, steps out to enjoy this week's snow).

Though two-year-old S's hospitalization last week was rough, it reminded me how lucky I am. My kids have been dealt a difficult hand in some ways (some of which I've alluded to here, others I have not), but are very lucky in others. S's roommate in the hospital was a sweet, smart 6-year-old boy diagnosed with leukemia just six days before. As his father told me, "Six days ago our walls collapsed." While S. and I slept snuggled together on a cot, the boy was up all night sick from his chemotherapy, tended to by his parents (his father arrived at 11pm after working all day in a restaurant). It reminded me of what I witnessed in the same hospital when I was 12 years old, and had 2 surgeries for scoliosis. I saw many children who were in far worse shape than I was, who would spend months on end in the hospital (and whose parents, unlike mine, did not have adequate health insurance). I realized back then how lucky I was, and I was reminded of it again last week. That even though life has thrown my kids and me some curveballs- particularly in the last year- we have so much to be grateful for.

Many, many thanks to the wonderful doctors and nurses at The Komansky Center for Children's Health at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center for taking such good care of S. And to S's roommate there, we are praying for you.