Joy Through Pain

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This week Micah took a fall- a big fall- and had to be rushed to the ER for 7 stitches right under his eye.  He was walking in our front yard, tripped on a brick, and fell face-first into our metal park bench.  He has never been hurt that bad, and we had never made a trip to the ER before (a miracle, considering we have 2 boys), but there we found ourselves.

As we waited for 5 hours for him to be stitched up and receive the results from the CAT scan, there were moments I felt so overwhelmed by his pain that my mother's heart could barely handle it.  Yet there were also moments where I just felt thankful - so thankful that it wasn't worse, thankful that we have insurance, thankful that we got a room so quickly.  I was thankful that the doctor said that "it was a miracle" that it didn't puncture his eye, break his nose, or tear his tear-duct.   She said it was her most complicated case in 2 days, but he was one of her best patients.  Again, thankful that Micah had such courage and was so still when he needed to be.

We left at 11pm, and on the way home he threw up all over me. But I felt thankful that I was holding my baby boy, and that he was going to be okay.

As I'm getting older (last week I turned 36), one thing I'm realizing is that in moments of pain, there are still things to be thankful about.  It is hard to find them sometimes, but they are there.  Sometimes we are searching so hard for a lesson to be learned, a word from God, an answer, that we can forget to have a thankful heart, and just remain in the moment.

We are on Day 3 of recovery, and today Micah's eye opened back up after being swollen shut.  Again, I'm thankful that the doctor wasn't the one who had to open it.

Micah doesn't want to go anywhere or see anyone; he is very self-conscious of his face and does not want to look at himself.  But I see the healing taking place and I know he is getting better every day.

Tonight I wanted to get the boys out of the house after being cooped up for 3 days, and on the way to the beach, Jaden started screaming with delight in the backseat. I didn't know what was wrong, until he screamed, "A rainbow! A rainbow! I just saw my very first rainbow!!"  I pulled over and turned around to see huge smiles on both boy's faces.  Kids know how to be thankful and find joy in the simple things... a lesson we can all learn.

We arrived at the beach and Jaden got out of the car with me.  Raindrops started falling, and he looked up and said, "I LOVE the rain!"  Again, the little things...

We were then embraced by one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen! 

A friend posted this on Facebook of tonight's sunset

One of the greatest lessons we can learn in life is how to find joy through pain - instead of whining, finding things to thank God for. I don't have it down yet; it is still a struggle, but my children teach me these things. And for that, I am thankful.