Perspective

Yes, I'm stealing a post title from a good friend of mine, but she summed it up perfectly in one little word.

There's a blog that I've been following for a few months now - Three Cheers for Babies. It's about a couple and their very premature triplet babies, Lily, Charlie, and Annaleigh, who were born at 25 weeks. While the prognosis for babies born that early is generally very grim, the news was almost always good for these three. The doctors were optimistic, the nurses marvelled at how well they were doing, and the parents prepped a nursery for the three babies they would be bringing home from the NICU. After two months of waiting and hoping, filled with ups and downs, bad news and good, their lives were turned upside-down in the span of 24 hours. Last Thursday, their father posted some fantastic news - Annaleigh was breathing room air on her own. The joy and hope in that post was incredible - you could tell they knew it was only a matter of time before all three of their babies would be coming home. Only a short day later their blog followers were devastated to see a post explaining that little Annaleigh was deathly ill, and would not survive the weekend. She passed away on Saturday.

I, and so many others, have been following their story, and it touched me today in much the same way that it touched my friend - a heartbreaking sadness that only a parent could possibly understand. I can't even fathom what it must be like to be given so much hope - to see so much progress come from a bleak outlook, and to have all of your dreams ripped from you in a matter of hours. As the post title says, it certainly puts things in perspective. We are so lucky to have a healthy baby (toddler!) boy, so lucky that we, ourselves, are healthy, and so lucky to have the wonderful family and friends that we do. I am not a religious person, only spiritual - I do not subscribe to any one faith, but the only word that seems adequate to describe how lucky we are is to say that we are truly blessed. As human beings, we tend to get caught up in the mundane aspects of life - bill paying, work, house cleaning - let Annaleigh serve as a reminder to slow down and enjoy the time we have together.