Brodie, Mama Loves You, Just the Way You Are...

I am going to deviate slightly from my “the best thing” series, only because apparently no one loves chowder or bisque except Melissa and I…that makes it a lonely place.  My soup blog got rave reviews.  I just don’t get it.  Some blogs are very popular, others not so much.  The ones I love writing the most or take the most out of me to write, sometimes get no response and I never know how to take that.  Oh well, I will keep writing…it is what I do and what I love to do.

So I found out yesterday that Brodie has a pretty severe case of Epilespy for a dog his age.  Why not?  I am not sure anything in the past 3 years has been simple.  No, I am not feeling sorry for myself, I feel sorry for him.  Why do I feel sorry for a dog?  Because he is my dog.  Because he is my child.  There was nothing normal about his sister, nor is there about him.  This morning my father said, “Why can’t you just have a normal dog?”  What is normal?  Who defines normal?  I think the “normal” everyone alludes to is the easiest way of life.   No challenges.  Staus quo.  The less trials and tribulations the better.  But don’t those things also make us who we are and define us?  No, I cannot understand why some people have more struggles than others, it is just life.  I just personally know I have a different view of life, because of the world I live in, because of my challenges.   I would never be so egotistical as to say my way  of life was the right way, it’s just how I deal with the cards I have been dealt. 

Some would argue we make our own destiny…some would argue that you have to sit back and let whatever happens, happen...I am not a sit back kind of person but I also used to be a make my own destiny, so it is interesting to find oneself in the middle so to speak. 

My heart breaks for Brodie.  Not because I don’t think he can handle it, but that he wasn’t given the choice.  Would you rather take medicine for the rest of your life Brodie that makes you walk around looking drunk and fall on your face, or do you want take that risk and wing it and hope for the best on no medicine?  He doesn’t get to choose.  I do.  Would he choose taking medicine?  I don’t know.  Am I making the best choice for him or am I making the best choice for me?  I don’t know that either.   I just know that when I think about it, it tears me up…into tiny little pieces.  And think I think about all the other parents of human children forced to make these decisions daily. 

This was troubling me all day and late last night before I went to sleep; my Aunt Michelle sent me a link, which was by far one of the best and hardest things I have ever read.  However, put so much in perspective for me as a parent even if it is of the animal variety.

So for anyone out there who wasn’t blessed with a “normal” life or a “normal child,” I think this link will hit home.  If you are blessed with such riches, cherish that.  Be grateful…hug your children tightly.  The most important thing you can do as a parent for your child is to love them unconditionally…

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/opinion/sunday/notes-from-a-dragon-mom.html?_r=1&src=tp&smid=fb-share