Once upon a time, in a lifetime eons ago, a little baby girl was born. Every birth comes with its nuances- some more than others.
This one had more than its share. The operating room filled with 3 medical teams: the obgyn surgical team for the c-section, a fully staffed neonatal intensive care team, and one of the most skilled cardiology and cardio-theurastic surgical teams. In a beautiful synagogue in the lower floors of the hospital, waited the baby's uncles and aunts, cousins, and grandparents.
Her parents nervously awaited her arrival and named her Tehilla immediately, for people to begin praying for that brave heart warrior princess. And it began...
The prayers, the challah baking, the desaturations, the ER runs, the acts of kindness, the loving messages, the heart failure, the destabilization, the medications, the hospitalizations, the warm blog family, the sweet presents and outpouring of love, the heart catherizations, the surgeries, the blood pressure problems, the incredible medical interactions, the building of an organization to support families of kids with congenital heart defects, the lifelong connections, the heart echos, the constant medical monitoring...
And behind the scenes came therapy, challenges, resilience, trauma...and more ups and downs than I can list. Our family is no longer the same. We are all finding our healing and happiness.
That little baby girl turned 10 years old yesterday. She is a crafty, creative, witty, sassy, joyful, bold, friendly and wonderful kid, learning to navigate the world. She's in 4th grade and in Scouts. She has a cute group of friends that frequent each other's houses and obsess over Harry Potter.
And with all the normalizing that came, Tehilla began to want even more normalcy. To move further away from being the "heart kid", the miracle, the chd warrior princess, the medical marvel. She wanted to be a kid. She wanted to live her life. And who could blame her- she earned it! It was what we all had prayed and hoped for.
She didn't want her medical history being a big deal in school, she didn't want extra attention from it. She was ready to just be her. About 3 years ago, she asked to start being called Emma at home, a nickname for her English name, Emily. As we made the switch, she found comfort in forming her identity away from "Tehilla, the heart kid". She started asking her class at school to make the switch, and some family. When we moved last summer to a new city, she introduced herself at school and to our community as Emma.
There is no greater gift then being at this stage in Emma's parenting, watching her blossom as a healthy, regular kid.
This blog was an important part of our lives when we needed it most. Helping us find a community, getting hundreds of thousands of people to pray for our baby girl, updating family and friends...
And now, like Emma, we have shifted to enjoying a relatively normal life and the blessings that we prayed for. Thank you for the role you played in our lives and for being our loving blog family.
