Perfection

I am blessed with five beautiful children ... all perfect in their own way. Their "perfection" manifests itself in different ways. Sometimes it shows itself in a joyful child, greeting strangers with a cheery "HI!", drawing them into her own little bubble of happiness. Other times that "perfection" comes with a perfect temper tantrum in the middle of a busy crowd of people who are already looking at us funny because we "look different."

Yesterday Nathan, Alyssa and I spent our day at The Down Syndrome Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital. These clinic days are always crazy. Our schedule includes visits to all of the kids' specialists ... genetics, ENT, opthamology, cardiology, lab work, radiology, and in Nathan's case a trip to the GCRC (the Clinical Research Center). The wonderful part of the day is seeing so many families "just like ours" ... families with children who also have special needs, specifically down syndrome.

While sitting in the cafeteria (shoveling the food in so we could get to our next appointment) I overheard a visitor to the hospital comment "It's so sad to see all of these kids like this. They are all deformed, or retarded or stuff like that. I don't know how their parents do it." You know me, I couldn't let the comment go by without saying something. So, I leaned over in my chair to the table next to me and said "I'm so sorry you feel that way! I haven't seen a sad child here today! Please don't pity them, but try looking at the world through their eyes!" Just as I said that Alyssa and Nathan found something amusing about licking ketchup off of their trays and broke into fits of giggles. God's timing is perfect too! I hope I didn't offend the young woman, but it is so sad to think that somebody might miss an opportunity to see God working miracles, or to hear His laughter in the giggles of two children.

Tonight, listening to my children say their bedtime prayers reaffirmed to me that I love our kind of perfect. I heard, "Thank you for my mommy. Thank you for my doggies. Thank you for my socks and my shoes. And, thank you for my boogies!" (Fits of laughter erupted here.) Prayer time isn't over until they've "God blessed" every single person they know.

God doesn't make mistakes. We are all perfect in His eyes.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and our family has so much to be thankful for. May your Thanksgiving be filled with all things perfect too!

Until Tomorrow,
Kathy and Her 5 Little Turkeys!