Raising a Resilient Hard Worker

For the past year and a half, Cavett has been receiving an allowance. He received 10 cents for every bed made, dishes unloaded from the dishwasher, clean clothes returned to his room and trash collected. Each week he received somewhere between 90 cents and $1.50. From this he gave about 20-30% to church and then typically saved the rest.

His goal has been to buy a Nintendo DS. We told him that if he saved half, we would buy the other half. I didn't think it would happen this fast. By Sunday he had $66.75. We decided that since he was having surgery on Tuesday (today), we would go ahead and spot him the $3.25 and get the DS. His activity is to be limited for the next two weeks.

He was as proud as he could be of his saved up wad of cash. And, I'm not afraid to admit that I am ultra-proud of him for working so hard and saving for so long, as well.

Cavett was very excited about today, even though we had explained everything that was to happen. It was still like Christmas morning to him. Lime and Strawberry Banana Jell-o was served for breakfast. After, Cavett and I went to Pediatric Surgery Center in Plano. As we walked in hand-in-hand, he said to me, "This is kind of like a date." Well, sort of. Maybe he was just in need of some good one-on-one time since school has started.

Everything at the hospital went smoothly. Cavett was calm and cool. The surgeon laughed with him and drew a smiley face on his "outie." And off they went. After waking up groggy and uncomfortable, his comment was, "That wasn't as fun as I thought it would be." We were in and out in 3 hours.

The most important thing is that I couldn't have done it by myself today (while Stephen was at work) without Nana and the prayers said for us. Nana came last night and kept Kendrick today as well as helped with all the cooking. And, I totally felt extreme peace and calm while Cavett was in surgery, even though I was alone.

By 4 o'clock today it was as if nothing had ever happened to him. Go figure. But, I am completely thankful for the ease of it all and the Master Surgeon's hands.