Keeping your life in perspective is pretty much a crucial task these days. It's so easy to become ignorant to other's realities. It's something that is easy to forget about, but very easy to accomplish if you just open your eyes and take a look around. There are oodles of reasons to be thankful and grateful for what we have. The lines between the haves and the have nots, seem to be growing thicker and thicker. So, by forcing ourselves to recognize the differences and do something good for others who maybe can't for themselves, can not only change their lives even for just a moment, but enrich your own far beyond just that moment.
Last night we prepared dinner for the families at the Believe in Tomorrow Children's House at Hopkins. These families have sick children at Johns' Hopkins and they live in this facility for their stint at the hospital. Sometimes for days and sometimes for months and months at a time. They come from all over -- Tennessee, Alabama, Texas. Even overseas. They come for the best care and treatment you can provide your child. They give up their jobs, their homes. They pull their other, healthy children out of school and even bring them along. Comfort foods is what's for dinner and boy do they need it (and deserve it. Every bite.)
Some children have extremely rare heart defects that require multiple, high-risk surgeries, like the 5 1/2 week old little boy, Theodore, who has never been "home" and who's parents have lived at the Hopkins House since his due date. Or Tatum from Alabama, who was born blind and has servere epilepsy caused by a stroke in utero. 80% of her day she spent seizing. They performed an extremely rare and dangerous brain surgery on her six year old little brain two weeks ago. She only has the right side left. Recovery is going well, though, and if all continues this way, her precious life will be saved. She's counting to 30 already and still knows her ABC's. Amazing.
There are so many more stories just like these. So many more families leaving all they know, giving up their life savings, incurring massive, unimaginable debt, to save their child or give them somewhat of a life worth living.
You can imagine, the last thing Tatum's dad, Robert, is thinking about is what he and his wife, Terry, will eat for their next meal. They are back and forth from their little girl's recovery room and their Hopkins House room. Barely have time for showers or laundry, much less time to make a meal that is NOT from the hospital cafeteria or the convenient store on Wolfe St. Volunteers come in and make enough grub for 30 people, which is MORE than plenty of food allowing for these residents to eat homemade leftovers for days if they'd like. Most of them do.
We cooked up quite the feast last night....homemade mac 'n cheese, creamed corn, which a sweet little mom asked me for the recipe for and I gladly gave it up. Hot turkey and gravy sandwiches, chicken pot pie, chicken noodle soup, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, chocolate chip cookies, and more. It was a feast and they deserved every last ounce. Every last kernel of corn. Every last slurp of chicken noodle soup. All of it.
Chatting with these people who have been stripped of all pride, joy, & hope in some cases, is truly eye opening. They are thrilled to have people like us there to chat with and share their stories with. Or not. Maybe just talk about football playoffs, their favorite teams. What 'purple Friday' is. Or maybe just the chat about the weather or their farm that their husband is tending to back in Tennessee; calling everyday for an update on how the bails of hay are coming along or the dairy cows. Maybe that's all they want.
If you're interested in helping out with something like this, check it out. They would love to meet you & taste your delicious, homemade offerings, I'm sure. Hopefully by then, Tatum will be home in Alabama singing her ABC's at the top of her lungs, while Theodore's mom gets to give him a bath for the first time after his final open heart surgery.
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