Back to Abnormal

Last Thursday Dante had his ASD repaired via open heart surgery.  Jamie and I traded off the time in the hospital with him, and we all were ready to get home yesterday.  Everyone at Children's Hospital Boston is so amazing, and Dante recovered very quickly.  I tried to use my time there well, knitting 2 dishcloths, 2 pot-holders, and 1 1/2 hats.  I am hoping to sell some knit hats as an adoption fundraiser, I have about six made so far. 

Dante was in an out of it for a while, just sitting on his hospital bed tugging at all the wires and IV's while watching Kai Lan on the iPad, but on Sunday he came out of his fog and started doing the interactive games and eating like crazy.  He was ready to go. We do have to go back to Boston in a few weeks for a sedated echo to make sure all is well.  They tried one on Sunday with just an oral sedative, but my little fighter needs to be out completely if they want to see anything.

Now we are home again, Leif has mostly forgiven me for leaving him so much and life is getting back to normal.  Which is anything but normal.  I am not really sure what normal is, unless I look at it from a typical American perspective.  2.5 kids, sports practice, the latest fashions, eating out once a week.  That is certainly not us.  I prefer my abnormal life.

For far too many people, normal is not a good thing.  Countries where it is normal to put a less than perfect newborn in an orphanage.   Orphanages where it is normal for those imperfect newborns become children so neglected they are emaciated and withdrawn.  Doctors in our own country whose normal standard procedure is to encourage scheduling an abortion while giving a prenatal diagnosis of down syndrome.   And an estimated 90% of those parents follow that advice because they don't know what else to do. 

Being hopeless has become normal. 

I think we as Christians should be rebelling against the world's version of normal.  Why should we expect our lives to be calm, controlled, and predictable? 

If you think about it, why do we put on the Full Armor of God, if we are not expecting a battle?