Touching Moment...

Today was such a rewarding day at work! I am so thankful that during this season of my life, God has given me a job that I get to do things like I got to do today! It makes me so happy to be able to bring smiles to the faces of children in the hospital, and it always amazes me how I leave feeling blessed by the patients. Today was such a perfect example.

Today I left my normal post in the ED and worked with the inpatient Child Life Specialists and threw a little Halloween party for the inpatient children! We do reverse trick-or-treat, where we dress up and go room to room handing out costumes and goodies! I didn't know what to be this year and decided last minute to be a candy corn! It ended up being a $3 outfit, which I will have to say looked pretty ridiculous, but was so much fun!

I had the privilege of working with one of our patients who I will call "Precious." She is 6 years old and was paralyzed from the neck down (and lost her mother) in a car wreck a few months ago. She has a trach and is dependent on a ventilator, but she has such a spunky little personality and is full of life! She has learned to talk over her trach, but her little voice is soft and often difficult to understand. Today she was going to dress up like a Barbie cheerleader, and it was my job to get her ready, so we had a lot of one on one time as I reconstructed the outfit to accommodate the wires from the pulse oximeters and heart monitors. While I worked cutting out the sleeves and making an opening in the back, we talked. After we had talked about pets and art projects, the conversation went something like this:

"Precious": "Everybody is my friend and my buddy...well but not Satan"
Me (smiling): "That's right...he's not our friend"
"Precious"(with bright eyes sparkling): "But God...he's my Buddy...and Jesus...he's my buddy"
Me (tearing up): "Yes, that's right...he is our friend"

Wow! Talk about "from the lips of babes...." I have been thinking about it all day! Here is a little girl who some would say has no quality of life, absolutely making my day with her JOY! What an amazing reminder that this little girl has hope in the midst of a terrible situation! She has a friend...I have a friend...what HOPE!!

After I put the bows in her long pigtails, I held a mirror up so that she could see what she looked like. Her smile lit. up. the. room! "That's GREAT!" she said. I fought back tears again and thanked the Lord for her life and how she touched mine today!