Best Laid Plans...

So you know how it is, your day is scheduled and something unexpected comes up. That's life right; things don't always go as planned. Well, my day got mildly interrupted, someone else's life got turned upside down.

I got a phone call on Tuesday night from a friend saying that an internet pal of hers had been airlifted to the local hospital and been delivered of a son, who was born at only 25 weeks. He was only about a pound and a half at birth. She has another child, a daughter, just 10 months old. Someone needed to go and babysit this new and quite small big sister, so Mama could recover from her C-section, Daddy could get to visit his new small son, and they could meet with doctors and what not.

Here was this family, far from home, worried, lacking child care for their little daughter, probably scared. I volunteered to go over for 2 hours the next morning, during the time that I usually spend working out. So instead of my morning meeting with the ladies at Curves, I walked a sleeping and angelic little girl up and down in her pram around the hallways and grounds of the children's hospital. She napped with her blankie and bottle for about an hour while I walked her around.

I didn't dare use my cell phone to call anyone while I paced, fearful of waking her up. It gave me a lot of time to think and pace and consider. My older daughter spent 2 hours in the NICU when she was born and I was out of my mind with worry. I could only imagine what they were going through.

After about an hour my little charge woke up. I carried her around a bit and showed her the gardens and the play area, we even saw a visiting Nurse Minnie Mouse and got a picture with her. After a snack of Cheerios and milk and a quick diaper change, I returned the very happy little girl to her Daddy.

Afterwards I went to pick my little daughter from preschool and hugged her very hard and looked into her eyes and said, "I am so lucky to have you. I love you so much." I hope with all my heart that my friend of a friend has the same chance to say that to her 4 year old son someday.

Workout: 1 hour of walking and pondering the vagaries of fate