Hopeful Anticipation

Advent has begun. The countdown til Christmas. This is by far my favorite season of the year. You can feel it wherever you are, well at least I hope you do. It seems like everyone is looking forward to something, celebration, family, gift giving, egg nog (just me?).

When I venture out of my home and see Christmas lights, Rudolph noses on cars, trees in homes, and hear Christmas music on the radio my heart literally leaps with joy. So many of us are waiting in hopeful anticipation.

In so many ways this year has been about hopeful anticipation. Anticipating Maggie’s birth, her skull surgery, her hand surgery, all in hope that God would hear our prayers. He did, boy He did. Like kids before Santa, we climbed onto His lap and told Him what we yearned for and He rejoiced and gave us what was good. He worked through the hands of others and produced miracles.

Maggie’s hands are the newest miracles. We have kept them in bandages since her surgery only changing them every two to three days and sometimes more frequently than that. Maggie has become extremely adept at wiggling out of them and when she does, it is like Christmas morning. Her eyes light up, like seeing a long lost friend she puts them to her mouth and gives them a salutary slobber. She stares at them in a way that she never did before; in my son’s words, “Mama she’s like, ‘I think I’m a new Maggie!’”.

Tomorrow we go for a big day of appointments. We will see our whole team and assess how Maggie is doing and what our plan is going forward. I am waiting in hopeful anticipation that they will open the bandages and give us the all clear for Maggie’s hands to finish healing without them on.

I am sure by Christmas we will be bandage free but I would love to be able to kiss those little hands now, to let her hold our fingers as she falls asleep, caress our faces and pinch our noses. All those things that we miss so much, I am so looking forward to it, all of it.