Before having kids, I thought about how inconvenient it would be to have to take care of another being. I was really enjoying the life Danny and I had built. We had steady jobs, a nice house, too many pets, and the best travel arrangements one could ever wish for!! Danny works for an airline company and the flights for the first 10 years he was there only cost $20 round trip nationally and (get ready for this ...) $35 roundtrip internationally! We were blessed enough to travel the world and see some of our dream places ... Rome, Paris, Niagra Falls, and too many tropical islands to name! Truly I never underestimated the value this kind of blessing brought to us (I never dreamed it would be a reality).
Then, one very fateful October day in 2004, 10/27/2004 to be exact ... two weeks before a suprise trip Danny had planned, to take me to Hawaii for my birthday ... our lives changed forever. I almost lost my beloved Danny. He was in a horrific motorcycle accident and he was in the hospital for weeks! He had several surgeries for broken bones, he needed constant dressing changes for the burns all over his body, he contracted a potentially fatal staph infection, and to this day, he still has a metal rod in his disfigured left leg. Three months after his accident, the doctor cleared him for 'intimate' activity. I'm sure you're laughing right about now! I'm smirking too :)
I can still remember that check-up appointment!! We had very specific questions about his progress but his 'intimate' abilities was NOT one of them! Honestly, his injuries were so severe that those thoughts weren't anywhere near any of our conversations at home. So when the doctor ended his check-up appointment by giving me a very graphic manual, with drawn pictures of different POSITIONS (!!) circled and 'x'ed out, I am sure that my face was beat red! I don't remember really hearing what she was saying, just out of being in utter shock! I'm pretty sure that Danny had a different reaction :)
That night we talked ... about starting a family. We both realized that life was too short to put it off any longer. We both wanted kids, we knew that about each other early in our relationship; afterall, we met when we both worked at the YMCA and we got serious when we both worked as Summer Camp Counselors ... so we knew kids were always going to be in our future. On February 24, 2005, almost four months after Danny's near death accident, we found out I was pregnant! Danny wasn't even cleared to go back to work yet and here I was, expecting our first child. And wouldn't you know it, Lito was born almost a year after Danny's accident (he was born 10/11/2005! Our lives haven't been the same since! We fell in love with Lito so much that we planned Solana Leila as soon as I thought we were ready (and yes, I even planned on her being a girl, but that's a different story)...
I started thinking about these turn of events because recently I have found myself missing our travel days. There were so many other places we wanted to go ... Hawaii was just one ... Spain, Australia, Egypt, South America, etc. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I have just wanted a break from being a parent. I started wondering, if before starting a family, had I been given a preview into parenthood, would I have made the same decision to start a family? As I spent the whole day with the family today, I realize that having our kids is the biggest blessing in my entire life! No way would I have ever changed things as they turned out. Yes, things are tough every single day (tougher on some days more than others when my patience runs thin), and yes, there are days that I need a break from them (really, from every thing!)! But the beautiful moments I had with them today, they really made me grateful to have them in my life. My family gives me purpose and they are my reason for taking time off! I know they'll be this small only for a little while and they require more physical energy right now than they will in the the future. The best part is that eventually they'll be old enough to take those wonderful world trips with us! (I realized this thanks to Danny's wisdom in putting that thought in my head!!) And guess what, now Danny has been with the airline long enough that ALL our personal flights are FREE!
So I proudly found solice in this beautiful day that I got to spend with them. I relished in having a conversation with my son and hearing how he is rationalizing things even at such a young age (he's 4 and thinks he's all grown up)! I fell in love with Solana Leila's intense observations and curiosity as she explores the world from her 1-year eyes. I so look forward to sharing the rest of my life with two beautiful children along with my very devoted, kind, generous, wise and handsome husband! Love, Live & Laugh ....
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