One Sunday morning a little girl, whom we will call Jennika, woke up to the sun shining into her bedroom. She dressed in her Sunday dress just like she did every other Sunday morning. This Sunday morning was quite different, though. While she was sitting at the breakfast table waiting for her mom to fill her plate, her mom’s chest suddenly started hurting very badly. It hurt so badly, she had to go lie on the couch. Jennika felt scared. She didn’t know what was going to happen. About ten minutes later, her dad took her mom to the hospital. Later that afternoon, she and her siblings heard that their mom had suffered a heart attack.
The next Wednesday evening, her dad asked, “Jennika, would you like to go along to the hospital tomorrow to see Mom?”
“Yes!” she beamed.
The next morning after breakfast, her older sister and baby brother went with her and her dad to the hospital. That day she had lots of fun. She enjoyed looking out the window of the waiting room and watching the helicopters take off and land. One time she even saw an ambulance come with its lights and sirens on. That was exciting! One time she almost got lost in the halls, but one of her mom’s nurses saw her and showed her the right room.
That night she was going to spend the night with her mom. She was so excited! She thought sleeping on the chair in her mom’s room would be fun. Her mom was going to ask the nurses for a pillow and some blankets. About fifteen minutes after her dad left, a nurse came in and said she couldn’t spend the night there after all! Her dad needed to come back to pick her up. She was so disappointed! She cried almost the whole way home. That night they dropped off her two-week-old brother at one of the church families to give her older sisters a break from taking care of him.
The next day she had a wonderful surprise. First, her cousins, who lived about three hours away, came to visit. And she found out that her mom was going to come home that day! She helped her siblings decorate the house. Her older sister made two welcome-home signs for inside the house and her older brother made one for out by the driveway.
“Mom is home!” yelled her younger brother when he saw the car pull up outside the house. Jennika and her siblings dashed to the front door. They led their mom to her favorite recliner which was close to the air conditioner that their uncle had just installed that morning.
That evening Jennika snuggled up to her mom. “I’m glad you’re home,” she whispered. “I like it when you’re home.” Because her mom had been gone so long, Jennika learned to be more thankful for her mom.
Jennika is older now and is still very thankful for her mom. Maybe your mom didn’t need to be in the hospital for a week, but you should still be thankful for her. Don’t forget to tell her!
