It Takes a Village

The last two days have been stressful, but also showed me some wonderful things. As I've mentioned, I'm the mother to four young children and I'm the only adult living in the household. This can be stressful, for many reasons. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed. Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing anything right. Sometimes I feel really alone. And then sometimes, just how lucky I am becomes clear.

Yesterday morning, I woke up with the lower left half of my face almost completely numb. I felt as though I'd had a shot of novocaine in my jaw. Otherwise, I felt fine, but being that it was my face which is close to my brain, I was concerned enough to see a doctor. The doctor was more concerned. She felt it was likely Bells Palsy, but she didn't feel qualified to say for sure and directed me to go to the emergency room. I looked around the exam room at my 4 little ones and felt like crying. The idea of spending hours in the ER with them was not appealing, to say the least.

I posted about my dilemma on Facebook, and called a couple of my closest loved ones, and almost immediately an amazing thing happened. People immediately began calling, texting, messaging and stopping by my house to offer to take a few or all of the kids and/or to go with me to the emergency room.

Within a couple hours, everything was squared away, the kids were all at home with one of my favorite people and I was on my way to the hospital. After hours of testing, the big things like stroke or tumors were ruled out, thank god, and early Bell's Palsy or nerve impingement are the most likely culprits, I have to follow up with my regular doctor and a neurologist,

I'm very grateful that this doesn't appear to be anything serious. But even more, I'm so grateful to see the true colors of the people around me. To see who and how many people immediately dropped what they were doing to offer assistance.

It's often said that it takes a village to raise children, and I am so blessed to have the village that I have! Sometimes, unfortunate things happen. But we can always look for the positive in a situation and try to find the lesson in it. The lesson I just learned is that there is so much help available if you just tell people what you need, and that so many more people love you than you probably realize! I have a blessed life, despite the struggles at time. I hope you do too! :)

What's the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you? Please share with me in the comments below!!