School is About to Begin - 7/25/2010

It was another wonderful day - so great, in fact, that I completely forgot to take pictures! Darn! It was another gathering of the kids. This time, however, it was Ben, Jenn and their kids along with Jennie, Kyle and Quentin. We ate and the kids played outside. But the purpose of the visits was left until last when we had the back-to-school blessings. I am not sure how the tradition of coming to me for a blessing began but I am pleased to be able to do that with Ben and Kyle. Also, sadly, this time also included a concern for Emma and a special blessing for her.
Emma has been diagnosed with some ailment of the optic nerve which has caused her to lose almost total vision in one eye. She see's colors only - no shapes and detail. Not only would that make it harder for her to be able to see depth and stay focused, it removes that redundancy that helps to ensure that we have a backup to our ability to see. Now that backup is gone. The biggest concern that the doctors have no idea what is causing this problem and there is the fear that it might happen to her remaining eye. That is scary.
She has gone to have an MRI and it did not go too well. Being young it was very hard to remain perfectly still for the long minutes required to take the image scans. So this blessing was also so that she would be able to complete that hard and scary time of being inside that huge, noisy machine for many minutes without moving. I know how hard and very, very noisy that is, having had one for my arm only 4 months back. To hold my arm in the awkward position that they put it for the 20 minutes it took was painful. And my head did not even have to enter the tube. I can only imagine how hard it would be for a child having to have their head go into this machine.
All of the blessings were given and time spent together was over far too soon and off they went on their way. All of the kids with their back to school blessings, Gaye and Jenn with their back to school teacher blessings and Jennie with her new job blessing. How grateful I am for the Priesthood and the ability to provide blessings of comfort and healing. How thoughtful our Heavenly Father is in providing an opportunity for us to have a closer relationship with him and with each other through the priesthood.