Little Purple Pansies

A picture my beautiful daughter took for me of pansies
we planted the year Aaron was born.

I thought I'd take a moment and explain the purple pansies in the background on his blog.  As a small child, I was taught the song, "Little Purple Pansies" that's over on the sidebar.

There were several parts that appealed to my little girl soul.  There was the touch of gold (yea! gold) and they were tucked away in the corner of an old garden, almost forgotten.  But in that dark cold corner, they did their part to brighten their little portion of the world.

Then, I think it was the first year we moved here, I watched as gardeners were putting OUT pansies at the end of the summer, as the days turned chilly.  And that's when I found that these fragile-looking little blossoms were some of the hardiest plants.  They weren't put in the corner of the old garden to protect them.  They were placed there because they could thrive there where few other flowers could.  And the deep purple, combined with the splash of bright gold drew the eye and gladdened the heart.

I think Aaron is like the purple pansy.  He looks so fragile, and in many ways he is.  But his soul, his spirit is strong, determined, and valiant.  He brightens and touches each person who knows him.  And it's not a "oh, look how much better off I am and what I could be dealing with" kind of thing.  He just makes you feel better, want to be better, because of the love he radiates.

And through the miracle of modern communication, Aaron's world is bigger than most.  He, himself, hasn't traveled much.  In fact, except for a couple of family reunions a few hours away and trip to Arizona last summer, his entire life has been lived within two counties in one state.  But he still manages to reach out and touch people around the world.  And they in turn, bless him and lift him up in prayer, and bless other's lives as well.

There's not a whole lot to report today.  Aaron transferred to the floor yesterday so we could keep working on getting his oxygen down to where it needs to be.  So yea! he got out of PICU, but we're still locked up in the Big House.

There wasn't much improvement overnight, but he's very happy, so that's good.  We've added albuterol every six hours and it might be helping.  At least we've seen more junk and it's yuckier in the hour after a treatment.  So hopefully it's helping mobilize it.  But we're still stuck at 5-6 liters of oxygen, just waiting for him to figure it out and get it together.  He'll get it.  Just not sure exactly when it will happen.

Blessed is the influence of one true, 

loving human soul on another.

George Eliot