Thursday, October 11, 2007

A Toddler Taught Adversity Lesson

If you remember my post a week or so ago, “My Lesson on Persistence…….,” you’ll remember that my daughter was credited with teaching me a lesson on persistence. Well, now she has given me a lesson on adversity.

The Story
My wife and I had a scare a few nights ago. After putting our 2-1/2 year old daughter into bed for the night we retreated downstairs for a movie. About 30 minutes in we heard a large crash come from upstairs. I ran upstairs to find my daughter standing at the foot of her bed screaming in pain. At the time I was sure that she had fallen off her bed, but I wasn’t sure what exactly had happened (a day later we figured out that she was jumping on her bed in the dark and fell off).

When I picked her up by the armpits she began to scream hysterically. I knew something wasn’t right, but all I could get out of her was her neck hurt. We called my in-laws to come over and watch our 3 month old. Upon their arrival we left for the ER (this was around 10:30 pm).

To shorten the story a bit (and to get on to the “adversity lesson”), after some x-rays, some Tylenol with codeine, and 2-1/2 hours in the ER, it was confirmed that my daughter had broken her collarbone. Luckily, it is “cracked” and not broken all the way through, so we hope the healing time will only be a few weeks instead of upwards of 6 weeks.

The Lesson
Fast forward a couple days now! Watching my daughter, I have really seen how she has been able to adapt to her situation. Life has thrown her a minor league curve ball, and she is handling it quite well.

See, she loves to play. She is a very active girl. She is also a very smart girl, and she has figured out how to do some of her favorite activities without inflicting pain onto her left arm. It’s neat to see her figure out how to stand up and sit down, get off the couch, color, play with her dolls, play in her kitchen, all her favorite activities, and doing them with a temporary disability. A little adversity has come her way (in the form of a broken collarbone), and she has dealt with it and been able to accomplish the very same things she was accomplishing before “The Fall.” Needless to say, it is a pretty proud moment in her mother and father’s eyes (of course, along with the sympathy we have for seeing her in pain)!

Children can be such inspirations sometimes. It's neat to see how they grow and develop, and even teach adults important lessons. So, that was my toddler taught adversity lesson. Or maybe it was actually a lesson on “independence” or “perseverance” or “toughness.” At any rate, it’s another valuable lesson from a special child! Do you have any "lessons learned" from your kids? How about from others in general?

4 comments:

Troy Worman said...

Eric! Wow! What a story. As a father, I can imagine the range of emotions this experience has brought you and your wife. I'm glad to hear your daughter is well. Children are wonderful teachers.

BTW, I added your blog to my ON list. Check it out at ORBIT NOW!

Eric Peterson said...

Troy,
It was quite a range of emotions. Scared, to sad, to proud....all across the board.

Thank you for your kind words. I appreciate it. Also, thank you for adding my blog to your ON list. I really appreciate that as well.

Anonymous said...

Eric - powerful story... and not to take away from your daughter because I think that was a great post and an amazing lesson.

I'm just so darned impressed that you are making the radar of some very powerful bloggers (and great friends of mine).

Congrats on hitting Troy's ON list... WOO HOO... you are a blogging machine, buddy!

Eric Peterson said...

Tim,

Thank you. I must say I owe you a great big Thank You for getting me turned on to the blogging world.

It has been neat to make a few connections out there, but I still get slightly discouraged that I don't have more readership. I suppose that comes with time (that and I need to become more "regular" with posting). Does metamucil work for that?

I'm sure I have quite a few things to learn on marketing my blog and being better at commenting on other's blogs.