Shut It Down!

Injuries in our house occur frequently. Over eight years ago I had never stepped foot in a Children’s hospital nor did I know the location. Now, my car could make it to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) on auto pilot I’m sure. Not only do we practically have our own orthopedic surgeon, I actually have the private line to the doctor’s nurse practitioner (Meg) who has become a sweet friend of mine. The parking attendants know us as well as the servers in McDonald’s. Often we hear, “Here comes the Summer family again!”

Boys and injuries are common yet don’t go well together. How on earth can you keep a six year old boy down? Zachary fell off his skateboard last fall and injured his ligaments. Damaged ligaments is never good news, a break is much better, it heals quicker. Sure enough after three weeks in a boot Zachary has continued to have problems with the ankle. Last week he could not put pressure on it due to a recent football injury.

“We need to shut it down,” was the doctor’s recommendation. Taking the ankle out of commission with a cast was the only hope to give it a rest. With a bright orange cast we left the hospital, activity was restricted.

As the mom, I’m not sure how to police this cast situation. I guess the responsible moms would make their child sit and do nothing, watch TV all day. We had one of the busiest weekends in a long time with lots of fun activities. The kids were signed up for a tennis tournament and Zachary begged me to play. I made him promise he would not run too much (yeah right mom!).

The efforts to “Shut it down” don’t seem to be working; Zachary has no problem running, jumping, and climbing with a cast on. It’s actually amazing to watch!

Sometimes I wish I could just shut down, go to sleep and rest for a few weeks. Life seems so busy no matter how hard I try to keep it at a manageable pace. I have multiple injuries yet I’m in the middle of USTA tennis, and to top it off I’m on a softball league..I don’t know how to play softball! Steve asked me to play with him, he doesn’t ask for much so I wanted to honor his request.

Although I would love to shut down physically, it is my spiritual being that will keep me going. My relationship with God and abiding in Him is all I really need. The physical aches and pains can be tolerated for now; my main concern is the health and well being of my spiritual relationship with Jesus. Some days it feels great, other days it feels like I’m falling apart. I am thankful for a sovereign God who loves and cares for me. He is faithful even when I’m not. When others see an inner strength in me, it is because in Him I live, move and have my being.

Sweet Dreams,

Debbie