Matters of the Heart

Do you know how fast life can go from normal to insanity? I'm not sure I really grasped that fully until this weekend. Friday was Gavin's birthday and after spending the morning with Mason, we hit the road to spend 5 or 6 days in Regina. I didn't get time off at Christmas to come home and see everyone and I really wanted to get to see my new nephew Noah again since he was just born Christmas Day. The drive was uneventful, and my sister texted me in the afternoon to make plans to visit. I knew she was taking little Noah to get an echocardiogram done because the had discovered kind of randomly that his heart looked a little enlarged, but as far as I knew it all seemed pretty minor and just in case. 

When Gavin and I showed up at my mom's door Friday evening, she was just on her way out, with my three year old nephew, explaining that my sister and baby Noah were being flown a province over where they have a children's hospital and that he needed heart surgery! Needless to say, the last couple days has seemed to go on forever and also kind of flown by. One day everything is normal and the next the family member you would least suspect to need life-saving surgery is getting just that. Fortunately, everything since they got there (besides the scary diagnosis) has been good news. Apparently tiny Noah is a fighter and he is so lucky to have his amazing parents and some amazing medical staff there with him. 

We've all been checking our email approximately every 7 minutes, just in case there are updates and there have been many phone calls to keep the information flowing to the rest of the family. Times like this truly remind you what you have and to be thankful for the things that we sometimes forget are such enormous gifts, like healthy babies, devoted parents, free healthcare, and even well-behaved five year olds that are very willing to share their mom with a three year old cousin who doesn't really understand the whole situation. There truly are no words for how lucky I feel for everything at this moment.