Raising a Well-rounded Child......

One of the supreme challenges of raising a very ill child is making sure that you let them know that although they are "special," they are still "normal."  I really don't want to end up with a self-centered monster who thinks we should drop everything everytime she "needs" us.  Balancing that against my instinctive desire to protect her from all possible harm is difficult for me.

So Babygirl has chores.  Empty the dishwasher daily, or more as  needed.  Clean one bathroom, and do it well. Clean her room weekly.  Believe it or not, that last is a totally new demand of mine.  I've never cared if the kids' rooms were messy - that's what doors are for.   But since Babygirl is going to need to live in a VERY clean environment after the transplant I figured we'd start keeping it up when she moved to the new room.

But this weekend the church youth group had a special project.  They were joining together with other youth to do some flood relief a couple of hours away. 

You see, there is almost no area in this state from here east that didn't suffer terribly during the recent tropical storms.  Towns flooded, roads and bridges still out, thousands still homeless, and farms literally washed off the map.  And any field flooded with contaminated water (which, near as I can tell, was ALL of it!) can't be harvested.

Now.  Let's think this through.  Sick kid.  Contaminated water.  Good idea?  And to do this she has to miss a night of dialysis, and switch to a day run.  But she wants to go.  I'm sure it's not that she has a burning desire, at the age of twelve, to help the helpless,  I'm sure it's that she wants to spend time with her friends.  But I also WANT her to go, to see more personally the devastation of peoples' lives and to develop a personal desire to help.  I want her to have that balance. 

If she had already had the transplant this would actually be out of the question because of the antirejection drugs.  And unlike each of my older children, I will likely be unable to take her on a mission trip with the Appalachia Service Project because by the time she's old enough, she will (pray God) have had that transplant, and it will be to dangerous for her to go.  But right now her immune system is fine.  And so.....she went.  She spent her day helping to clean a cornfield, and is suitably impressed by the size of the project.  And I am hoping that it will make her realize that as tough as her life is, other people have some tough times also.

As I've said before, if we don't throw her a pity party she won't know she needs one.  Turns out it's easier said than done, but I do my best to pull off the cotton wool and let her go.

DeeDee