9. Enjoy the little things.
8. Every child I interact with is someone's "Henry."
7. To be a mother is to watch your heart walk around outside your body.
6. There truly are angels on earth.
5. Everyone is fighting some sort of battle we know nothing about.
This lesson hit me about halfway through Henry's hospital stay. I had gone home for my every-other-day shower, and needed to run to Target to grab a couple of necessities. This was the first place I'd gone besides home and the hospital since Henry was admitted. As I walked in the door, everything felt surreal. I walked in, feeling like a completely different person than I had been the last time I entered a Target store. Yet as I walked around the store, no one knew that my whole life had been turned upside down. I was clean, dressed in clean clothes, looked like a normal person running a normal errand. No one knew that I hadn't left a hospital for days, that I wasn't living at my house, that my son was still in the hospital, fighting for his life. No one knew that we had received such a devastating diagnosis just days earlier. I wasn't wearing a sign that said, "My son has leukemia and I don't know what the next minute, hour, or day will bring." I wasn't carrying around this picture of Henry, and the battle he was just beginning. (Even looking at this picture makes my heart hurt...he was so strong and fought so hard!)
As I wandered around Target and had this revelation, I thought of how often I judge other people. I judge people who go to Wal Mart in their pajamas. Yet I don't know their story. Perhaps they were up all night with a sick child and ran out of Tylenol. Perhaps they are living out of their car and don't have clean clothes available. Perhaps they are just comfortable in their pajamas! And that's just one example. Since Henry got sick, I've tried to be much more patient and understanding. I don't know what battles people are fighting, just like they don't know the battles I'm fighting. I expect people to be a little more patient and understanding with me, and therefore I need to be more compassionate and caring toward others. It's amazing how much even a smile can brighten my day, so that's what I should do for others. It's just another way that I can carry on Henry's legacy of love and caring!
4. Time is a gift.
3. Death is not the end of a relationship.
2. You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.
1. Motherhood is the best job I could ever hope for.
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