Gratitude

I don't believe there are coincidences.  I believe things happen for a reason, although the reason may not be revealed to me for years.

In 1996 when our first child was born - beautiful baby boy (no prejudice here!) with strawberry blonde hair.  While he had some stress during delivery and had to be intubated to start his breathing, he rebounded beautifully and as was well.  In the hospital in our state, they do a hearing test on newborns.  They tested him twice in the hospital, and they explained that it's common for newborns to be tested twice, as many times there in fluid in their ears.

After the test, nothing was really said, so we went home and all was well.  Sometime during that first week as I began to sort through the myriad of papers from the hospital, I noticed a yellow paper tucked in a pocket of the diaper bag.  The paper explained that our child had failed the hearing test twice and would need additional testing.  Whoa.  Nonetheless when I called for an appointment they continued to say this is normal, and this other test is more thorough.  In the meantime, we'd watch him like hawks to see if he startled when something was dropped, or if he'd respond to the sound of his voice.

At the age of two months, we learned our son had a mild to moderate hearing loss and would benefit greatly from hearing aids.  We did some grieving, and my husband suggested we let our son's hair grow over his ears to cover the aids that were slightly larger then his tiny infant ears.  I wasn't too fond of that idea, but my husband hadn't been around anyone who wore hearing aids or had any special needs, really, unless it was in the hallway at school.

Here's were the 'there are no coincidences' premise holds true for me:
For instance, as I was growing up in a tiny rural town - Plains, Montana, where the population tends to hover around 1000, a family moved into town when I was in first grade.  This family had six children, and the youngest two were girls who were about my age.  We were in Brownies together, softball (when we were a little older), and as is typical in a small town, we were involved in after school activities.

The youngest daughter, we'll call her Elle, was hard-of-hearing, and actually almost deaf in one ear, so she wore hearing aids.  We never really thought anything about it - she was just one of us, although she preferred country music over pop music (we only received a couple of stations in that area!) because she could understand the words better. :-)  We graduated high school - she was very successful academically and socially, and we went our separate ways off to college, but because her oldest sister had married my older brother, it's been easy to keep in contact.  We're practically family, after all!

Because of my experience with Elle, I felt that the hearing loss was a disadvantage, not a disability.  I had seen how successful that Elle has been academically (she earned her master's degree!) and socially, and I was grateful our son would receive hearing aids as an infant, because the audiologist explained that children with his type of hearing loss who begin wearing hearing aids before the age of six months usually have good speech articulation.  Elle didn't receive hearing aids until kindergarten or first grade, so I was excited that our son would get them so young! 

That experience from 22 years prior to the birth of my first child, helped me to embrace our circumstances more easily, with hope and a positive attitude.  Our son, now 14, is an avid and serious musician who plays three instruments extremely well (piano, flute and saxophone), does well in school, and is just an ordinary teenager.

I'm grateful for those coincidences that have occurred in my life that prepare me for what life holds for me.  What coincidences can you relate to that have prepared you for unexpected circumstances?

Gratitude

Several things have happened of late that really touched me...

History: Sometime mid-Fall, 14 yr. old son takes dog for a walk & listens to his iPod.  Son leaves iPod in sweatshirt pocket.  Washing machine.  Dryer.  Ugh.  I scour the internet for possible ways to save the iPod.  Dries iPod in rice bowl for a couple of weeks little while.  iPod plays music but backlight doesn't work, and it won't hold a charge. 

I finally took my son to the Apple store in town.  Actually, we tried to contact Apple service online, but when no one in the family could read the super tiny serial number, even with my reading glasses on(!), so we opted to search for a store in town.  Voila!  So we went to the store, in hopes of returning the iPod for repair, at son's expense.  Busy store.  Four kids.  Close to nap for 3 yr. old.  Two hour wait for service.  Hmmmm.  Made an appt. for the next morning!  Yeah!  Arrived a little early, and only had three kids.  Aside:  The 5 yr. old begged opted to accompany his Dad to doctor appointment to watch Dad get his cast removed.  Dad couldn't come up with a good reason not to take him agreed it'd be nice to have one-to-one time. 

Back at the Apple store, we were taken back to the repair/service area right away.  We explained the circumstances (our fault, just want to send in for repair, etc.), but the Apple store employee kindly explained it was physical damage, not covered under warranty, and it was irreparable.  14 yr. old and I were both crushed disappointed.  I was pretty sure he didn't want to cough up money for a new iPod, and I knew this was a difficult but valuable lesson for all involved.  The Apple store employee asked us to wait for a moment, so we obliged, still subdued.  I started to consider inquiring about used iPods.  The gentleman returned and reiterated the unit was irreparable, but that Apple wanted us to have a working unit for the holidays.  I was puzzled and wondering if there was going to be a sales pitch...next thing I know begins checking his inventory.  They have one in stock.  Same model.  Same color.  Same everything.  Then the kicker...they gave it to us at no charge.  Yep.  For FREE.  My eyes welled up.  And over.  Yes, tears dripped right past my eyelashes.  My 11 yr. old daughter caught my eyes.  Her eyes began to blur.  My 14 yr. old's son's face beamed and his eyes welled up, too, although there was no obvious leakage. :-) 

We felt so very blessed.  It colored our whole Christmas break with a spirit of gratitude, thanksgiving and generosity.  It may have been a drop-in-the-bucket for Apple to give us a 5th generation iPod Nano, but it was a significant gift to us.

When we received the customer survey we filled it out promptly and with glowing praise.  And while 'I'm a PC', I'm certainly excited to spread the word about the superior customer service we received from Apple.