They finally came!

  I enrolled Mateo in a program a few months ago called Beads of Courage.  The purpose of this program is to support kids that are going through tough illnesses. It also gives them something tangible to show others the rough, and often, dangerous road they have travelled.  Basics of the program are this:  each procedure or "milestone" throughout each child's journey is represented by a certain bead.  There is something special about each bead, whether its the color, the shape or how it was made...one even glows in the dark!  A bead is presented to the child after each milestone.  These milestones can be anything from an overnight stay in the hospital, a blood draw, tests or scans, admission to the hospital, clinic visits or even "bigger" procedures like caths or surgeries. 
  I came across this program a few months ago and fell in love with it.  Many of our heart kids go through some tremendous pain and difficult procedures.  But so often, we are told that our kids don't "look sick" or "look normal".  And that's a great thing.  I want Mateo to look normal and to act like he's never seen the inside of a hospital.  But at the same time, I want what he goes through to be important.  And these beads give it meaning, validation...something tangible to show people "look what he's accomplished".  These are beads that he can take to school and show his friends or teachers or ANYone to say that he fought, he survived and he continues to thrive.  To LIVE.  Each bead IS a bead of courage.  Because truly our children are brave and many have looked in the face of death and beat the odds.  And this strand of beads recognizes that. 
  So when that USPS box arrived on our doorstep, I was excited to open it.  Mateo was too.  He was dancing in place as I cut across the tape that held it shut.  Once I opened it, I just let him go to town pulling out one envelope of beads after another. 
  Tonight we strung them together as a family.  While Mateo does a lot of the hard work, we're all in this journey together.  We grouped them all together by color and shape and let Mateo do the majority of the stringing.  He seemed to really enjoy it and had so much fun choosing which bead to use next.

We got to the end of one strand of string and had TONS of beads left to string.  That's when it dawned on me how many beads there actually were.  How many things Mateo had gone through and endured.  These beads only represented the first 3 years of his life and I started wondering how many more we were going to have to add. 

He has surgery coming up at the end of this month and that always tallys up quite a few.  And then there's the rest of his life.  Cardio appointments, tests, etc etc.  It made me a little sad looking at it all, but I didn't want to take away from what they really stood for....Mateo's bravery and what he fought for.  And he was SO happy to be doing this!  Aside from being very concentrated when he was actually putting a bead on the string, his smile was from ear to ear almost the entire time.  And for me, they represent that he is still here and still fighting.  We hope and pray for the best when it comes to our future, but he is here now and we are enjoying every minute.