The ripple effect

One of the things I do with my life is offer support and help to families of children who have heart defects or heart disease. Often, these children are either facing surgery in the very near future, or they have had surgery within days, sometimes hours, of my visits. It is one of the most fulfilling things I do, aside from being a wife and mother.

I do this because I've been there. I've had the countless hours sitting next to a hospital bed, watching monitors, watching nurses and doctors, and hoping for signs of improvement. I've been there in the middle of the night, when it's quiet in the hospital, and you are hoping that it's all a dream and you will wake up from the worst nightmare of your life. I've slept many an hour on a sofa in a waiting room, or in a recliner or chair in Jonathan's room. I've been in the waiting room in the middle of the night, waiting to hear from a doctor about my child's condition. I've been in the back of an ambulance, and in the back of a life flight airplane, watching as someone worked to keep my child alive. I've even been there when the doctor say they can keep him comfortable, but not alive. But miraculously, he survived!

So, I go to the point of crisis for this parents, to give them HOPE! I was visiting with "heart" friends yesterday. One of them has a one-year-old who just literally breezed through his second surgery. They were talking about how we would never have known each other, if it hadn't been for our support group, which never would have been, if my friend's son hadn't had a heart condition, which prompted her to start the group, which I never would have joined, if MY son hadn't had a heart condition.... You get the picture.

Would I have preferred for Jonathan's old heart to have stayed healthy? YES!!! A thousand times, YES! Would I rather him not have had to endure what he's had to endure the last 13+ years of his life? Absolutely! Was a transplant what I wanted for him? NO! But, would I go back and change a thing, knowing what I know now? NEVER! I wouldn't change the decision we made. I think of all the friends I have made, people I've been able to help, and doors that have been opened to me, because my son had a heart transplant. Our lives are like ripples in a pond. We touch those who are close to us, and they touch others, who touch others, who go and do the same, etc. We don't know how far our "ripples" go, because we can't see them. But, they're there, and every time we reach out to another family in need, we start a new ripple. It's the coolest thing in the world. What was meant to destroy Jonathan, God has turned into something meaningful and beautiful for others to share. It's just the coolest thing!