Humbled

It's no secret around here that I have a slight tendency toward smart-mouthed, sarcastic skepticism. So I offer the following with no expectations, explanations or interpretation. Take it or leave it, but it was a sweet moment.

First a bit of history: When Olivia was 19 months old, she had a run-in with two very large drywall screws and one long nail. She swallowed them. I remember being in the kitchen and hearing some awful retching and gagging noises coming from her bedroom. I remember seeing her red face and realizing she was choking. I remember slapping her on the back, turning her over on my knee and pounding on her like they teach you to do. I remember being on the verge of real panic when nothing I did seemed to help her. And then suddenly, she coughed and swallowed and started breathing again. She seemed fine. I remember being perplexed as to what it was she had swallowed, and debating for a bit whether or not I should take her to the doctor. I remember seeing the x-ray up on the screen, and seeing, in living black and white those two great big screws in her stomach, and a little farther on down, a large, very pointy looking nail. I remember the insta-care doctor expressing amazement that all of that had made it down to her stomach without tearing up her throat or anything else along the way. I remember my amazement when he told me that the best thing to do was nothing, and that they would very likely work their way through her system all by themselves. I did not believe him. I called my pediatrician for a second opinion, then made her call a gastroenterologist for a third opinion.

(As a funny side note, now that I work at the insta care with this same doctor, I asked him one day if he remembered the baby who had swallowed all the hardware. He looked at me and said, "That was YOU? I still tell people that story! I still can't believe she got all that down.")

Fast forward four years. The screws are tucked away in Olivia's baby book. We never found the nail, but a follow up x-ray confirmed that it was no longer inside of her. After everything turned out okay, the whole incident became a bit of a family legend and an inside joke. I'm sure we have talked about it here and there, but not very often, and not for a long time.

So today Olivia and I were sitting at the kitchen table. She was playing with her stuffed animals and I was working on some paperwork. She was singing and telling stories to her animals and occasionally talking to me. I was half listening to her, trying to concentrate on my work, when something she said caught my attention.

She said, "Do you remember when the angels helped me?"
"When did the angels help you?" I asked.
"Remember when I choked on those three screws, and the angels came and made me all light inside, and then the screws went down? And Jesus was very bright. Why is Jesus so bright?"

What prompted this out of her, I will never know. But I think it was a gift for me. I don't always have to be a doubting Thomas. Sometimes I can just believe.