Amber’s Awesome Angels

We talk a lot about how bad diabetes is, how hard it is to deal with it.  But something happened over the past 8 months or so which really puts things in perspective for me.  A family that goes to our church had twin 3 year old girls, cute as a button and full of life.  They began to notice last spring that one of the girls was having problems focusing and balancing.  She was diagnosed with a tumor in her brain stem.  This type of tumor is inoperable and always fatal.  They family did what they could to extend her life as long as they could, and they treasured every moment they had with her.  She passed away early this morning, just a few weeks before her 4th birthday. 

No matter how bad we think we have things, no matter the troubles we see with highs and lows, with malfunctioning pumps, with expired insulin, and all that, we still have our children.  We can still listen to them complain about finger pricks, we can still give them hugs when a shot hurts, we can still treat them when they go low.  I almost feel guilty being an advocate and a fundraiser for my child when others have to experience grief like this. 

I’ve dealt with death before, but watching one like this was different.  This was a life at the beginning, this was a life who was so young but old enough to understand what was happening to her.  This was the first death I’ve been even remotely close to since Amber was diagnosed.  This was harder on me than I ever expected.

Cherish every moment you have with your kids and family.  Consider yourself lucky to still have your children around for you to cherish.