a Christmas story

I want to tell you a story.

This story starts just over a year ago, the day after Juno was born. The pediatrician on call had just done her newborn examination and came to me with concerns about Juno's left hip. She said that it felt too loose and "clicked" when she flexed it, which could be an indication of a disorder called hip dysplasia. She urged me to call Primary Children's Medical Center and make an appointment for Juno to be seen by a pediatric radiologist and orthopedist.

I mostly shrugged it off. The doctor at the hospital wasn't our normal pediatrician, so I told myself that if our (admittedly crazy) pediatrican still felt it was an issue when he saw Juno a week later, I would call and make the appointment.

At Juno's one week checkup, our crazy doctor said he felt like Juno's hip was normal, but he trusted the pediatrician on call enough to agree that Juno should be seen by a specialist. He even set up the appointment for me, on Juno's one month birthday--they couldn't get us in before that.

Fast forward one month. I had pretty much pushed any worries of HD out of my mind. Juno seemed so normal that I couldn't imagine anything was wrong. I was sure that we would go to the hospital, do the ultrasound, and be reassured that we had a healthy, normal baby girl.

The day of the ultrasound arrived. I dropped Tempe and Helena off at my mother-in-law's house and drove to the hospital. As soon as I walked in, I knew in my heart that we wouldn't get any reassurance. I just knew that she had hip dysplasia.

I was calm as the radiologist did the ultrasound and showed me exactly what was wrong in Juno's hip. He seemed surprised when he showed me a picture of a Pavlik harness and I didn't bat an eye. It wasn't until I was driving home that it hit me. We were entering a realm of complete unknown (for us, at least) and it was scary. Adjusting to a third child was hard enough and now this?

I picked my big girls up and when I got home, there was an envelope taped to our front door. Between Juno and the diaper bag and Tempe and Helena clawing at me, I barely managed to make it inside and I just dropped the envelope on the couch and forgot about it. It wasn't until several hours later that I opened it. Inside was an unsigned Christmas card and a $100 bill.

I can't say how much that meant to me. Nobody knew that I was taking Juno to get her hip checked out that day. Nobody knew there was even a possibility of anything being wrong. I know that one of our wonderful friends and neighbors was looking for someone to serve that day and was led to us. I hope that I can always listen to the Spirit and be led to those who need a boost.

Merry Christmas.