Reflecting on Blessings

Let me preface my reminisce here with a little "You won't get this often from me". I am a spiritual person, but I tend to "hide my light" sort of thing. I keep my personal uplifting stories to myself. But, in reflecting on this experience, I felt it expedient to share it. I don't know why, maybe if only to remind myself I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who is mindful of even me and my own. So having said that, I was thinking back just this week to three years ago. A scary experience in my family brought with it great blessings and solidified our testimonies and faith. At the age of seven, my sweet little girl's eyes suddenly crossed. I couldn't quite pinpoint what was wrong at first. I'd look at her while she was talking to me, but she couldn't look me in the eye. She would look off to the side. (I later found out that she was looking at my double). Her eyes weren't so blatantly crossed at first, so I wasn't sure, but I had an uneasy feeling. My feelings were confirmed when her teacher came to me (I work at her school) and asked if Nicole got hit in the head over the weekend, because her eyes weren't right. It was at that moment that the panicked mommy feeling kicked in. I grabbed a phone book and started making calls. I went first to our optometrist, which really wasn't the right choice. So, he referred me on to an ophthalmologist who specialized in children. This all took place over the course of several weeks. The agony and worry was incredible. When I finally got into our specialist, she took one look at her and said we need to do an MRI. She was fairly certain that the root cause was a brain tumor. She said this just doesn't happen in 7 year olds unless it is a tumor. I was devastated, terrified, shocked and suspicions confirmed all at the same time as Nicole has suffered from migraines since like the age of two. We as a family turned to the Lord. We prayed for her and asked for a miracle. We fasted and she received a Priesthood blessing from her father and grandfather. We made plans to shave our heads if it became necessary so she wouldn't feel funny. (Well, I did at least, Kevin is too worried about his looks). On the day of the MRI, we tried to push out the fear and replace it with hope. As I held my daughter's hand while they put in the IV sedation needle, tears rolled down her face, but not a sob escaped her. I was stifling my own sobs, They wheeled my sleepy girl away, and I closed my eyes and said one last prayer. KT and I held hands trying to support each other in at what we felt was one of the darkest moments of our life. As they wheeled her out, I imploring looked to the technician and asked her, "I know you aren't supposed to tell me, but, please, what did you see?" She indicated that she couldn't say for certain, but "NOTHING" she saw nothing! I knew that was our miracle. Our doctor was grateful, but dumbfounded and wanted to check with several colleagues to be sure. Needless to say, their diagnosis was the same, "NOTHING". She subsequently had eye surgery to correct the issue and hasn't had any problems since. (The surgery was minor compared to the fear of the MRI and it's potential results). This "NOTHING" was something to our family. I am grateful to a loving Heavenly Father that saw fit to allow me more time with my beautiful little girl. For that I am eternally grateful.