Gratitude

Today I ran into a familiar face. I’m really good with faces. If I meet you once, I will recognize you if I see you in the future. I may not remember your name, but I’ll remember your face. And I may or may not stare at you until I remember where I know you from.

I stopped dead in my tracks today when I saw her face. I knew she was someone important. I searched my memory trying to place her. It took about 5 seconds before I realized that she was the first nurse on shift when I checked in at Orange Park Medical Center to deliver Porter. She only had about 2 hours left when Steven and I arrived, but her charisma and energy were memorable, she had Steven and I laughing hysterically and we even made a connection – she recognized my last name and realized that her daughter was a former student of mine at Florida Virtual School. She also assisted with Porter’s delivery, she wasn’t the nurse assigned to me for that shift, but I remember her coming in and assisting. Her hair was up in a pony-tail instead of down like the night I checked in and she was not in scrubs, but I knew it was her. I politely interrupted her and her husband by calling her name. She turned to look at me, and she quickly lit up with a smile. She remembered me… Hugs and smiles.

She told her husband, “This is the girl I told you about that was giving us such a hard time.” I smiled and said, “I don’t know what you are talking about, I was the coolest patient ever! Y’all know you loved me.” And they did. Despite the circumstances, Steven and I were pretty cool with all the nurses, they liked us. Her husband replied, “Yeah, I think she is referring to the fact that you weren’t ‘all there’ during delivery.” True. I guess I wasn’t completely present. I mean, I thought I was, I didn’t really know anything went wrong until after I was informed of what happened. Time seemed to magically elapse; I guess I really wasn’t there. 

[When Steven returned from work today, I told him about my encounter and how I must be known as “the girl with the blood/platelet problems”. He quickly replied, “That’s better than being known as the ‘dead girl’”. Touche.]

Anyways… back to reason I was blogging, besides the obvious recanting of memories 4 weeks old that I’m trying to not to dwell on, but rather be uplifted by. The conversation with the nurse continued. I asked her if she had received my Thank You card. She had. She expressed her appreciation for the card. I conveyed to her that I wanted her and the other 3 nurses to know how much I appreciated them and all they did. Steven refers to them as the “A-Team”. We were truly blessed with the best group of nurses. She continued to tell me that she was talking to her manager about how much it meant to each of those nurses to receive personal notes of kindness and praise.

Our encounter has kept me pondering all day. Too often, we remember to complain. We are quick to get a manager and grumble about poor service. We want our voice and opinion heard about the negative, but what about the positive? Why is the positive so quickly forgotten? Steven and I wrote Thank You cards about the individual service that we received from each of our 4 Labor and Delivery nurses. We know them by name and the order that each of them was assigned to us; I can still see their faces. In our eyes, they were gifts from God and we wanted to them to know it. We wanted them to know how valuable they were to us. May we all remember to thank those who touch our hearts and our lives. Don’t assume that people know you are grateful. Make sure they know. Tell them. Thank them. 

 

I am thankful every day to be here to be his mommy.

And to be here with my favorite people in the world.

Such sweet miracles.

And I am thankful to my Heavenly Father for them.