Counting my blessings
Ella Carlisle
Every few months I flip through the photos that have accumulated on my cell phone. This is mostly an exercise to weed for the out of focus, or the “I think I closed my eyes” photos. But this time I ran across the grainy photo that you see above. It’s a photo of my two-year-old daughter, Ella — at the time the photo was taken she was 18-months old. It was also taken on the most humbling day of my life.
On May 29, 2008, Ella was diagnosed with hip dysplasia – a deformation or misalignment of the hip joint. In layman’s terms, she was born without a hip joint. The photo was taken about thirty minutes before my wife, Shannon, and I heard the news. Needless to say, we were devastated and totally unprepared.
Over the course of 2008, our lives changed significantly. We were in and out of Nashville’s Monroe Carrell Jr. Children’s Hospital for procedures and check-ups. Many of our friends and family halted their lives to help us cope — which we will forever be grateful. The doctors and nurses at Children’s were amazing – always willing to answer our questions, thus easing our concerns along the way.
A year later, I’m humbled by the experience. In one day I learned how precious life is and since have been reminded how blessed I am to have an amazing wife and loving family. Ella still isn’t out of the woods; she’ll have the pins removed from her hip this fall – I am assured though knowing that my family is surrounded by loving arms. We are blessed.
Thanks for writing, I really liked reading your newest post. I think you should post more frequently, you clearly have talent for blogging!