A heavy heart

I sat down with the intention to write a sweet post about our nightly bedtime routine that I love to share with Caroline but saw I had a Care Pages update about my friend's daughter. Her name is Charlotte--she is 3 years old and is suffering from stage 4 neuroblastoma. She has gone through more these past few months than anyone should have to go through in a lifetime. She has responded well to all of the treatment (she's finishing up radiation next week, I believe), but they just have to play the waiting game to see what will happen next. Now that I have a child of my own, I cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like to see your baby go from a lively, spirited 2 year old to a tiny, bald 3 year old who has to go through all of this terrible treatments. We also have the friends whose baby was born at 25 weeks (and hopefully will be going home soon) and friends whose baby was schedule to have heart surgery this week (but was postponed until next month) and friends whose little boy had to have a spot on his lung removed. It hurts me to think of what they are all going through. But it also makes me cherish Caroline even more. We are so lucky and thankful that God has blessed us with a beautiful, healthy baby. When she was a tiny baby and crying and crying, I would start to get a little frustrated...and then I would think, "Bobby and Natalie would do anything to have Perla home and worrying about how to make her stop crying". When I see her big smile, I hope that Greg and Patrice get to see millions more of Charlotte's smiles. I pray for all of the doctors that are helping all of these little ones, and I hope what my friends are going through helps me to never take a single moment with Caroline for granted.