Humor

When Erin was diagnosed with AML I scoured the Internet looking for books, websites, or blogs by a parent of a toddler with AML. I did not find what I was looking for. I hope that someday someone can benefit from the things that I have written. If you ever learn of someone having Leukemia, specifically Acute Myeloid Leukemia, you are welcome to direct them to this blog.

The morning after Erin's diagnosis we sent her into surgery with heavy hearts and buckets of heart wrenching tears. We were under the impression that Erin had the less severe, and more common, Leukemia (ALL). Only seconds before they whizzed us downstairs to surgery did we find out that she had a rare and more severe type of Leukemia (AML). Red eyed and unable to keep the tears from bursting out we inched down the crowded hallways to our room. A half hour later, with pockets full of tissues, we went downstairs to the surgery waiting room where we met up with Diana, John's youngest sister and waited for Erin to get out of surgery.

If you can believe it, we spent the next hour laughing and reminiscing about silly things Erin had done. Our gray clouds dissipated at we were able to laugh and enjoy the humors in life. "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." It is most important to maintain happiness in our lives, despite our dire circumstances.

Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritation and resentments slip away, and a sunny spirit takes their place (Mark Twain).

All of our intense moments have eventually followed with a dose of humor, it's just part of how we run our lives.  I am so happy. I truly am happy. I love having some one on one time with Erin.  She is the third child and not many "third childs" (is that grammaticaly correct?) get so much one on one attention.  It is a good lesson in motherhood to entertain my child day in and day out while being confined to one single room.  It would do all of us some good to spend an entire day in one room with each of our children.  It forces me to spend time together, to bond.  I hope that when my kids are teenagers that we would still be able to have this type of relationship! 

There are so many things in life that distract from family relationships.  As I sit here looking out the window I see the hustle and bustle of the world and I wonder what everyone is doing.  Erin woke from her nap and I just painted her fingernails and we did a bunch of puzzles together.  Now she is watching Cinderella and her Polly Pocket Cinderella is acting along with the movie.  Later today, John and the kids are coming for the weekend.  It will be the first time we've all been together in two weeks.  Family is everything.  It is so important to love being together as a family.