January is Esophageal Atresia/Tracheoesophageal Fistula (EA/TEF) Awareness Month. Because my son was born with this birth anomaly in 1982, Different Dream is raising awareness with Wednesday guest posts written by parents of kids with EA/TEF. Last week, Ursula Herrera shared feeding tips she discovered while raising her son. Today, guest blogger Maggie Gale describes how she reacted when her twelve-year-old daughter recently had an emergency endoscopy and the removal of food lodged in her esophagus.

Thankfulness

So we are back here. I thought we’d moved on. I remember this feeling of hospital corridors, bored children waiting, disillusionment mingled with disinfectant hanging in the air.

Different location.
Same emotions.

Different doctor.
Same questions.

My daughter has grown,
but not grown out of it.

Oh, my problems. You are so familiar. How many years will you hound me?

There’s no answer to this question. Just a still small voice inviting me to change my perspective.

Instead of frustration and questions which have no answer…

Thankfulness.

She can be seen today.
There is a doctor available.

We had three-and-a-half years without surgery up to this point. Thank you, Lord.

Thankfulness.

Often, we can’t choose our circumstances, but we can choose our responses to them.
We can choose to be thankful in all circumstances.

How Have You Learned Thankfulness?

Has your child with special needs experienced a setback or maybe multiple setbacks? Were you able to maintain thankfulness? How did you do it? Leave a comment.

Do you like what you see at DifferentDream.com? You can receive more great content by subscribing to the quarterly Different Dream newsletter and signing up for the daily RSS feed delivered to your email inbox. You can sign up for the first in the pop up box and the second at the bottom of this page.