warm fuzzies

There's nothing like spending a few hours in a children's hospital to help you put things into perspective.

I am not spending my 17th birthday in the pediatric ICU.
I am not deaf as a result of an intentional injury from the people who were supposed to love and take care of me.
I am not sitting beside the bed of someone I love, watching them hurt.
I am not one of two one-year-olds with no one coming to visit because I have been removed from my home.

No, no. I'm a girl with a pretty wonderful life and pretty fabulous people around me. Those kids and babies helped me remember that today.

I had my actual "first" day volunteering at Cook Children's Hospital two weeks ago, but it was actually more of a final training day. I didn't get to interact with any patients; instead I learned (or was supposed to learn) the ins and outs of the two floors where I will be volunteering. Today, of course, I couldn't remember if I was able to go into another patient's room after leaving a "contact isolation" room where I wore gloves and a gown...luckily, I found out the answer is yes.

I helped sing happy birthday to a 17 year-old boy in the ICU. Child Life got balloons, a cake, and presents (from the "happy room!" aka toy storage). We wore gloves, gowns, and masks...I felt so Grey's Anatomy-ish. Then I went back up to the floor I was on and checked on kiddos and their families. I took puzzles and movies to some of them. I then spent the rest of my time with a little 8 year old girl who had no one in her room all day. She is deaf and has developed really neat ways to communicate. She was a sassy, bossy little thing! We cut out hearts and the letters of her name...we colored...we put together a puzzle...she took her own temperature (bossiness!) when the nurse came in. I wished that I could hear her story; that she could speak it....that she could speak the words "cover your eyes until I'm finished" instead of using her hands to show me what she wanted me to do. I didn't spend the time feeling sorry for her, however, I was just glad to sit beside her and help her be an eight-year-old child.

I walked out at 4:30 to a beautiful, sunny day and such a feeling of accomplishment and purpose...what a good day.