Searching for my winter sweaters the other day, I came across a box I threw in the back of the closet of old prescriptions, boxes of syringes, and small clear glass vials. The box contains a red medical-grade syringe "sharps" container, full to the brim. It contains a variety of little glass vials both empty and still full.
Keeping a box of old syringes in a closet probably isn't the safest thing in the world, especially when you live in a home with three toddlers. I can't imagine throwing it out. I'm even pretty sure if we moved into a new home tomorrow, next year, or years down the road....the box would follow us to our new home and into the back of a new closet again.
I remember a long time ago when the box was new. I remember walking out of a pharmacy with all of those same syringes and vials and pills new in their packages carried in two large grocery bags. A receipt a mile long trailed behind me. The brown paper bags contained all my hope, right there wrapped up in a convenient package. I didn't know at the time that all my hope at the time might have been in those bags - but my future was not with it.
The box reminded me of how elusive parenthood was for a very long time and how, at the time, I would have never predicted the three littles under our roof today.
Someday I'll share with my kids the story of our family in it's entirety. That story includes how difficult it was for us to conceive. The importance of sharing this truth with our children someday may help them understand our re-directed passion in fighting for them, our willingness to let go of one dream and begin with another, and why adoption became the heart of our family. I hope my daughters can also understand a woman's worth should never be placed on if she can carry her own children.
Parenthood is a blessing, not one that everyone gets to experience, and never to be taken for granted.
The box reminds me of that. So for now, in the closet it stays.
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Love this! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThis is a very heartfelt post. I remember the shots, boxes, and long receipt. I remember praying that all of the shots would "work". I remember that I fought fear constantly during that time. I also see how the Lord grew me to trust Him alone and through it all, I believe I am a better parent now because of that time. Between the months of preparing on paper and my body for EA, the years of many miscarriages, there has been pain, but there has been even more growth through it all. Thank you for sharing your heart.
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