Happy Birthday

Tonight I was writing a check in preparation of the Pizza Man driver bringing our dinner. I filled out the date 2 August 1966. Well I didn't actually complete the 1966 but I thought it. On this date in that year, we were 8 days away from meeting our first child.

There have been many milestones in her life (which seems like a short one to me, but may seem long to her). She was the child that the unusual happened to at regular and varied intervals in her life. Condomalachia Patella which if I did not spell correctly I apologize. I could never say it either. It amounted to a wandering knee cap which caused odd sensations and a week knee. This was in her teens. This was followed by problems with her thyroid. She seriously broke her leg (not in sports) just walking down a hill. Soon after that, she discovered she had been exposed to Tuberculosis by the grandfather of the family where she had been a Nanny. Seizure syndrome has caused years of medication to keep her brain from bouncing neurons that trigger the seizures.

Hoping to start a family, she and her husband were told she had ovarian cancer. She is a survivor. God was good. The cancer was discovered as stage 1 or pre-cancerous. She is more than 6 years past her chemo treatments and no sign of cancer. In recent years she developed Afib, simply said a problem with irregular heart beat. An ablation was performed and within months doctors will know if the procedure was complete and all is well.

While there is much to rejoice; our girl has fears and anxieties that keep her from enjoying the good she has. As a mom who is watching, I feel her fears and sometimes fight against magnifying them in my own mind. She has anger for those things that have disrupted, denied, and in some cases destroyed her quality of life.

As I think of her birthday coming soon, I go over everything as I did that long ago night in the hospital. 10 fingers, 10 toes, two eyes. Check! Beautiful girl, already smiling. Sweet disposition, healthy lungs. As she grew, I kept counting. Outgoing personality, lovely smile, funny and a lover of laughing at the ridiculous. Determined. Loving and kind toward her younger brother (who never turned out to be the horse she had asked for). Gracious to her parents. Talented in voice and ability to work with pens and pencils and color as well as florals.

She walks with God. She found Him at a young age and has persisted in following even when she was angriest with Him. She has followed the paths He has set for her. She is married to a kind and loving man who suffers for her right now as she struggles to understand yet another health issue. I watch and admire him. In my own fears I am sometimes sharp or impatient with her. He doesn't seem to be and always gives that extra to help her through.

I am glad to be able to say one more year "Happy Birthday, Helen"! I can't make things go away or even be easier to bear but I can tell you I am glad you are here. Love, Mom