One of Brookie's favorite things to do was go down to the beach and listen to the waves. We would squeeze her in her teeny weeny kini, smother her in 5 layers of 50 sunblock, put on her cool shades and off we would go! Daddy would go before us and lay out her lawn chair and umbrella and we took a cooler for her pediasure. She would lay there for hours and just listen. But this trip to the beach was a little different.
Poppa and Nana had asked us to go to Florida with them one summer and we were so excited! They are always so much fun to travel with and we knew we would have a blast. Poppa made the reservations and when we got there everything was perfect. Our room overlooked the pool, tiki hut and lagoon. There was even a wedding taking place right below us that we got to watch. We unpacked everything and we just hung out and talked the first night. The next day we headed down to the beach. Brookle and Amber had matching bikinis (which we didn't plan). Poppa and Timmy had went down and set up a big tent for Brooklynn.
But when I got down there she was crying. That was very unusual for Brooklynn to cry because she had such a high pain tolerance. She got shots all the time, IV's, finger pokes and none of those ever made her cry. The nurse said one day that she just wished she would cry so she wouldn't feel so bad because those big brown eyes glaring at her made her feel awful.
So, the next day I decided to just lay her by the pool and see how that went. She screamed! But then I would lay her on her other side and she was fine. It was the strangest thing. Later that evening we took her shopping. She was agonizing in pain. Poppa came up with an idea that I could ride in an adult wheelchair and hold her and he would push me. So here we went through the store me riding in a wheelchair with Brookie on my lap and Poppa pushing us, laughing all the way. The whole rest of the vacation I spent in the room with Brooke giving her Tylenol every 4 hours. Then I noticed that it was her hip that was hurting her so bad.
When we got home I immediately took her to her doctor who referred us to Shriner's. We got in in just a few days. We were setting in the waiting room when I heard an African American lady say, "Brook-land is that you?" I looked around the corner and there stood Valerie! She was the nurse in ICU at the hospital when Brooklynn was born who had been so hard on me. I grabbed her and hugged her neck. She was so thrilled to see us. We sat down and talked and she said, "I knew you was going to be a good mom, that's why I was so rough on you." It was such a blessing to see her!
Soon after the doctor came in and ran xrays and there it was. Her hip had come completely out of socket and lodged up against her bone. One of her legs instantly had become almost 2 inches shorter than the other. It was so painful that adults who had it would have immediate surgery but that wasn't really an option for Brooke. If they did surgery she would be in a cast from her waist to her feet making it impossible to change her or move her. That wasn't the bad part, the bad part was that she only had a 50% chance of living through the surgery. The doctor suggested that we do cortisone injections in between the bones so that they wouldn't grind when we moved her. We were so brokenhearted. Timmy and I just sat there and cried in that room. One of the nurses came in and prayed with us. We prayed continuously that God would heal her but God knew his plan. The Bible says His ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. This week I read this in my devotion and its exactly what I've been saying since Brooke was born. Often well, always we walk through things for 3 reasons: 1.) So that we will be able to comfort those who are in affliction-when people know you walked through it they will listen to you. 2.) That we would not trust in ourselves but in God-Anything that causes us to turn to God (sickness, divorce, job loss) is an asset not a liability. 3.)That thanks maybe given-Do you remember where God has brought you from. Instead of focusing on the bad begin to thank him this week and pray that he will in return make you a light to others!
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