The Daddy Diary 2: All the Small Things

Everyone keeps saying that going through situations like this gives you perspective. In case you are listening, God, I’m good now. I’m so full of perspective that I sweated some out on my run this morning.

Living in the ICU with your newborn makes you look at life through the side-view mirror that says, “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.” It makes you realize that things that look really small are actually really big. A smile. A hug. Not so small anymore. Holding your child might seem like a small thing, but it isn’t. I can hold Ella anytime that I want. Correction: now that she is a toddler, I can hold her anytime that she wants. If I want to hold Audrey, we have to schedule it because it takes two nurses and a respiratory therapist about fifteen minutes to complete the 24-step process to transport her to my lap.

Everybody has a list of things that they are thankful for: family, friends, their health, Fletcher’s Corny Dogs, Jason Garrett’s retirement, etc. Now when I kneel down and thank God, I’m going to thank him for the small things, and I have another one to add to the list – snot bubbles. Yep, you read that correctly.

Audrey had surgery yesterday to open her blocked nasal passage, and as usual, she came through like a champ. So, as I sit here watching her make snot bubbles, that means that she can breathe through her nose for the first time in her life.

Snot bubbles. Small thing? Not in my side-view mirror.