Part One - Relief and Recovery
Well, what can you say when everything comes together flawlessly and with little to no effort? It makes you appreciate it so much more, especially if you are like me and attempt to plan out every specific detail.

What I am talking about (this time) is that we have just returned from the Phoenix Children's Hospital. We got a phone call on Monday from them reminding us that we had a scheduled laser surgery for Ellie's hemangioma on her right arm for Thursday at 7 am. We were surprised because we had not heard anything up to that point. We hadn't even heard if my insurance would cover any of the procedure. We were not ready to make a decision until after the holidays because we had originally gotten the impression that we didn't have to hurry.

Wrong again wisenheimer.

We had to have some answers from the doctor, and he did not get back to us until midday Wednesday. We were both ready to just not go at all.

Of course, we are also trying to get all our stuff together here and at work so that we can celebrate Christmas at my brothers... another long story, so don't worry about that part.

Long story, very short, Gene and Sally picked up Emma last night and we got up at 3 am. Fed the baby. Loaded her into the car and drove to the hospital by 6:30 am. She was admitted, even though she was seriously P.O.'d that she hadn't eaten for over 3 hours. Abbie put her on the surgery table, they ushered us out and forty-five minutes later Abbie was rocking our Gracie in her arms in the recovery room.

We just got home.

"Whirlwind," you say?

"And how," I respond.

"What does something like that look like?" - check out Ellie's quick progression.

Part Two - Realization
Now, I am not a religious person, but I believe that I am a very spiritual one. This entire situation has grabbed both Abbie and myself by the neck and forced us to come to the conclusion that we have been too hasty to criticize the decision-making and choices of others in similar situations. Like everyone, we have our opinions and up until now, have treated them as convictions. We have learned a valuable lesson by our over-zealous outspoken actions.

At the same time, this little thing has allowed me to rediscover the elation of fatherhood again. It is the feeling that I am sure many have experienced. Up until now, I almost feel that I was so busy with keeping my head and body busy that I had not been capable of feeling it. I had tried, but it is like forcing fun on someone, all it does is turn ugly and someone ends up crying and running home.

The simplest metaphor I can immediately conjure up is this:
You love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Every day you can't wait to taste one or two or more. Then, eventually, your taste buds no longer appreciate the sweet and stickiness the sandwich has to offer. So you gradually stop eating them, or even cut cold turkey. As time goes by, you begin to feel empty inside and can't seem to find the reason why. You try quesadillas, fruit and other lunch-time substitutes until someone offers you a PB and J, and you remember the wonderful relationship. At first bite, you can't believe you ever stopped devouring these things because they are the most fantastic pleasures you could ever fathom.

"You don't know what you got until it's gone" said someone, somewhere, sometime ago.

Right now, to me, that is the biggest fault of human beings. However, I don't know if it is something and we can truly understand or even control. I believe this is the reason why self-help, self-esteem boosting, spiritually uplifting forwarded e-mails are such an ongoing cycle. It may not pertain to your attitude today or the next, but eventually it will and you will want to share it with others. The volleying of positive words keeps the cycle rolling. But like the wheels in a watch, some roll around slower than others, but all come full circle at their own pace.

Today, my counter has reset.