Good Kids!

While waiting for our meeting with Sue on the 20th, we hid ourselves in a hallway to give Caden some privacy, should he throw up again.  Well, privacy from other patients, this hallway is used by all of the nurses, doctors, and staff of the hospital.  One nurse walked by, abruptly stopped, turned to look at and count my kids, and then proclaimed, "If I were blind, I would have never known that you had five kids sitting next to you.  You have some GREAT kids!! I need to learn your secret!"

The truth is, I don't have a secret.  My kids are just good kids from birth.  I have so many opportunities to see this, too.  It feels good, as a mother, to be told that your kids are well-behaved and so obedient, but it feels better knowing that my kids are great kids that will become great adults and great parents to my many, many grandkids! 

For example:

Keilie was finally able to get a bag of chips that she wanted with her sandwich meal.  We don't always value meals for our kids, but with the stressful news that slammed us, we decided to splurge on our kids, so their memories would be fun instead of fear.  However, Brennon's meal came with the wrong ones.  Before he even had a chance to be sad, Keilie switched him.  She wasn't loud about it, and didn't even say anything, but I saw it.  I know how much it took for her to give up what she wanted most, but she did it without even asking for recognition.  That is a good kid!

Just minutes after hearing the news, I needed to go down to the Sibling Playroom to ask if they could keep my kids just a few more hours.  She asked that I take them out for a quick little drink and snack, so they could stretch their legs.  It was kind of stressful not being able to go straight back to Caden, but I knew what she said was true.  I took them to the vending machine that takes credit cards.  Again, wanting them to have the world, I told them they could each choose one of their choosing, usually we have them share.  They were so excited.  Brennon and Keilie wanted chips, while Shelby and Tyson wanted fruity candy.  Brennon and Keilie chose quickly, so I got them first.  Well...I put in their orders first, that doesn't mean that they got them first.  Both bags of chips got wedged between the glass and the other snacks. 

 They would not come out, even with a simple shove.  I decided to just use the other snacks that we were buying to dislodge the chips.  First one...fell on the chips and sat there.  It felt like I was being punished.  Why now?  Why, when my kids are getting exactly what they want in a time of great heartache, does this need to happen to them?!  I didn't want to simply shake the machine, I wanted to go postal on it.  I had instant images of picking up the chair next to me and bashing the heck out of the glass.  I was going out of my mind.  The people that were sitting next to the machine said that someone else had had the same thing happen just moments before.  I finally got the Starbursts down, but the chips stayed as they were.  Since so much time had passed, I said that I would get the Skittles, and that they would now have to share.  The people left, we got our treats, and turned to go.  They had left their extra snacks near my purse.  It almost pushed me over the edge I was trying so hard to stay away from.  I had not cried yet, and I didn't want to do it now.  Since Brennon's chips were the ones that got caught, he was going to have to take one of the snacks that were left.  Brennon is a very picky kid, so he was saying that he wouldn't take anything.  Shelby immediately gave him her Skittles and took the other snack.  Brennon knew (this time) that she was giving him her stuff and said thanks.  "I'm giving them to you, because I love you, B-boy.  You're my brother."  That is a good kid!

With Shelby's birthday last Friday, she came home with so much.  Sunny, our amazing photographer, had stopped by her school and dropped off a bag full of snacks and a HUGE stuffed giraffe.  And when I say huge, I mean bigger than Shelby, huge.  There was so much!!  She looked through the bag and picked out the snacks that she wanted to give to Caden.  She knew that he liked sour during chemo, so she found the sour and called to show us what she was going to share.  Next, she looked at her stash and said she remembered that Mrs. Leggard, her tutor, liked Doritos, so she wanted to share those with her.  Then, after dancing around the front room with her giraffe, she asked me how Anna was doing (my cousin's little girl that was diagnosed with a brain tumor on 1/21/16, although it is not cancerous YAY!) and said that she wanted to give her the giraffe to make her happy.  As it stands, she did give Caden his snacks, she gave a portion of the chips to her tutor, and would have given the giraffe to Anna if she would have still been in the hospital.  She ALWAYS looks for ways to give her stuff to others.  She is always wanting to share, to make others happy.  She didn't have those birthday gifts for more than half an hour before she was thinking of giving them away to those that she loves.  Most times, we have to stop her from giving all of her belongings to others.  That is a good kid!

Caden got a gift from his High School on the very day that Anna was brought into the ER at the same hospital.  Caden had just been given some morphine and nausea meds, so he was pretty out of it with pain, nausea, and dizzy-sleep.  Just before he fell asleep, I got the text from Ryan saying they were there, and asked if he would mind if I popped down to see them.  "Mom, take the bear I got today.  Tell her that I wanted her to have something to hold onto so, she wouldn't be as scared."  That is a good kid!

There are many, many examples of my kids being amazing.  These are just examples from this week!  I hate being parted from them so much. I miss them so much!! We could have chosen to uproot them to have them closer to us, but we know that they are where they need to be.  We were lead to Richland where they have supportive school staff, teachers, church and school friends, and a home that gives them comfort and normalcy.  But the one thing I do like is that family members that we have not lived near for their entire lives get to know my kids.  They get to see for themselves their personalities, their struggles, their curiosity, their rambunctiousness, their spunk, their learning style, their obedience, and their love. 

I have good kids!  Thank you for praying for, supporting, and taking care of my family.

I am the luckiest girl in the world!