Broken Bones and Wholesome Hearts

These days it seems as though life is full of surprises. Weird things continue to happen and we almost glaze over them as 2020 has brought us daily obstacles that at this point have become oddly normal. Sometimes I feel like we don’t even notice them anymore. We have come to terms with plans being cancelled or needing to make a last minute change. Flexibility in both our actions and thoughts have become a necessity. We are building resilience and grit in our large corona sandboxes and those skills will serve us well long after corona becomes just the name of a beer once again. I am proud to say that this week, although we have come across yet another setback, we are learning from the experience and growing stronger because of it.

Monday began as an ordinary day but ended with two very tired parents, a teenage son with a knee injury and a tremendous amount of pain with an unknown diagnosis. Thankfully, a friend of ours pulled some strings and referred us to a wonderful specialist who seemed to have solved the mystery and calmed us down along the way. We were told that or son’s knee was fractured and although the recovery would take a bit of time, no surgery would be needed as the injury would heal on its own. We blew a collective sigh of relief and felt so grateful that it wasn’t worse. We then formed a plan together with our son on how we would navigate these next few weeks with major mobility restrictions by simply taking it day by day and following the pace of what our son’s body could tolerate. We quickly learned that although plans have now been yet again, derailed, we were never meant to have them in the first place. This was the road we were to travel now. We were taking the scenic route. And so far, it’s been beautiful.

Each one of my kids had summer plans that were cancelled because of Corona. So they smiled and said that they would make new ones. This summer has been different than summers past but we have been creating memories and spending lots of family time together despite the lack of fun filled activities and awesome trips they would have typically taken in sleep away camp. We tried to plan a nice getaway for the family and each time we thought we found something, it didn’t seem to work out. Now we know why. I can’t imagine hiking and biking would go over too well with a kid on crutches who can’t even bend his knee. This trip was to be the highlight of my summer, a sort of end to quarantine and one last hurrah before school begins again (we hope) and my oldest daughter returns to Israel to complete another semester of learning. We talked about different ideas of where to go for weeks, researched and planned for hours, and in my head I was all set. But each time my reservation request was sent back to me with a denial, I wondered if G-d was trying to tell me something and I guess He was. I now realize that our end of summer plans need to be spent right here in our house we call a home, filled with love and new learning experiences that I am witnessing each day.

You see, when my son got injured, no one complained that our trip would be cancelled. Not one person mentioned how disappointing the outcome was. Instead, each household member displayed their sympathy for my son and his pain, offered to help in any way they could and has been pitching in from the start. I have been watching my son and his attitude from the beginning and it’s been refreshingly positive. He is determined not to let this injury weigh him down beyond the obvious physical brace that dresses his entire leg, and continues to smile, sing and make witty (and sometimes not so witty) jokes. He is learning to be as independent as possible around the house so as not to become a burden on any one of us and shows his appreciation for the extra love and care he is given. My heart is warmed by the outpouring of texts, calls, and drop ins from friends and neighbors who check in to see how he is feeling and their offerings of well wishes. And while we won’t be creating an album of pictures to display our adventures of New Hamshire this summer, we will certainly collect a memory box full of positive thoughts and actions that will forever stamp our hearts.