Just the nanny...

Today is a good day.

"Just the nanny..." I love to hear people say this (insert sarcasm). I have been working with my current family for a little over a year (March 15th was 1 year). I keep a 4 year old continually. There is a 6, 12, and 14 year old that I watch when they get home from school. All boys.. very polite, and very well behaved. I am very much emotionally attached to all 4 of these boys. But i have a special attachment to the 4 year old, only because i see him so much more than the rest. I wake up every day to see this child. He brightens my day. Once he told me "Ms. A, you are the nanny i have been looking for my whole life..." I mean.. melt my heart.

May 1st he was bit by a venomous snake. Where i live, we only have 2 kinds of venomous snakes... copperheads and cottonmouths. However, the Pygmy rattlesnake lives only miles away, so it is possible for them to migrate to my county. We (and i say we like i am part of the family) don't know what kind of snake bit him, but what we do know is that he became very sick very quickly. Within one day the swelling had moved from his foot all the way to his hip, and the drs were talking amputation, and that he might not ever walk again... By Tuesday, the swelling was to his rib cage, and the drs were saying there was nothing more they could do, just keep him comfortable. Evidently they will not use anti-venom on a child because there aren't many cases of this happening. It can be just as dangerous to use anti-venom as it is for a child to get bit in the first place. Long story... his mom was with him every minute, watching for him to start bleeding internally (this was what was supposed to happen next... then DIC... then.. well.. the worst thing that could have happened.)

As awful as this is... i was preparing myself mentally for the worst to happen. I emailed many friends and churches asking for prayer... Scared to death... And while i stayed home with the other kids... i wondered what was going on with this little 4 year old that i loves so much.

Today, as of right now.. he is lying in his bed, taking a nap with his brand new Sponbgebob blanket. I will rewind a little more to last Wednesday -  Drs said, we don't know how... but the swelling has stopped, in fact it is going down, and he is improving. By Thursday he was home... and yesterday, he took his first steps. (he is walking with a walker, but a week ago today, we weren't sure he was even going to be with us.)

I have so much to be thankful for. That child is one of the strongest people i have ever met. He told me yesterday "I will walk in 3 days!" The drs said it would take weeks to get his strength back enough to stand on his own, let alone walk. But he's doing it. He's meeting his goal. Almost makes me feel ashamed. I know there are so many things i have given up on.

Just the nanny... but I hafta tell you. I am so glad my little guy is asleep in that room, under that Spongebob blanket, walker close by. *shrug* makes me smile.. and makes me cry a little too...