I came home last night after a long yet awesome two days of working on a photo shoot and was greeted by my three kids' smiling faces which was awesome as always. Later in the evening, as I was brushing my 10-year-old daughter's hair for bed, she says to me... "Mom, when can I get surgery to fix my eye so I can see out of it, you know connect it to my brain?" I took a deep breath realizing that when I explained that one day she could get surgery to connect her muscles from her "dead eye" to the good one so they would always move together... she apparently thought that she would be able to see out of it too.
My daughter was born with an eye condition; Optic Nerve Hypoplasia of the left eye. Her Optic Nerve did not develop resulting in blindness of the affected eye. When her "dead eye" is fatigued at the end of a day... it tends to drift a bit and when her classmates began noticing this last year, I explained we could eventually get it fixed so it would not be noticeable and she obviously thought this would also fix her vision. After a long pause and with a lump in my throat, I had to tell my daughter that she wold never be able to see out of that eye. As she looked at me with tears rolling, my heart broke.
As parents, our children look at us to "fix" things... and typically we can. We can fix boo boo's and broken toys (sometimes) and even fight a battle or two for them here and there... and they know this about us. It was hard seeing those tears roll; and even harder to tell her that I could not "fix" this for her. I gave her a great big hug and told her not to cry, that everything would be fine and that she was unique because of her eye condition and that being unique is very special. I am not sure it made me feel better but it worked for her and that is all that mattered at that moment.
The moral of this story? Embrace the things that are "unique" about you... nothing and no person is perfect. We are all weird and peculiar in our own ways and have things about us we would like to change, however creating a positive outlook in the qualities that are unique about you is winning the battle of self consciousness.
May you find a love for the unique things about you!
xoxo ~Shelley~
My daughter was born with an eye condition; Optic Nerve Hypoplasia of the left eye. Her Optic Nerve did not develop resulting in blindness of the affected eye. When her "dead eye" is fatigued at the end of a day... it tends to drift a bit and when her classmates began noticing this last year, I explained we could eventually get it fixed so it would not be noticeable and she obviously thought this would also fix her vision. After a long pause and with a lump in my throat, I had to tell my daughter that she wold never be able to see out of that eye. As she looked at me with tears rolling, my heart broke.
As parents, our children look at us to "fix" things... and typically we can. We can fix boo boo's and broken toys (sometimes) and even fight a battle or two for them here and there... and they know this about us. It was hard seeing those tears roll; and even harder to tell her that I could not "fix" this for her. I gave her a great big hug and told her not to cry, that everything would be fine and that she was unique because of her eye condition and that being unique is very special. I am not sure it made me feel better but it worked for her and that is all that mattered at that moment.
The moral of this story? Embrace the things that are "unique" about you... nothing and no person is perfect. We are all weird and peculiar in our own ways and have things about us we would like to change, however creating a positive outlook in the qualities that are unique about you is winning the battle of self consciousness.
May you find a love for the unique things about you!
xoxo ~Shelley~
Unique=Awesomeosity!
ReplyDeleteShe's a fabulous little lady:-)
:)
ReplyDelete