Shots and Suckers

A few weeks ago two government nurses came to COL to give all the older babies and toddlers vitamin A, de-worming medicine in chew-able tablets and the MMR vaccine. We were all playing with the kids outside and thought that it would be best if the kids went in one by one to get the shot. We stayed outside until they called the name of the child we were holding. This my friends is not how it is done in Africa. When they called our child's name we went in but realized that all they were giving at the time was vitamin A and the chew-able tablet. All the kids were sitting in the room as the nurses starting going around to each kid to give them the shot. It was awful. The younger kids didn't know why they were crying but began to once they heard the shrills from the one who was receiving the shot. It was a ripple effect. If this wasn't bad enough the big kids came in and as soon as they saw the needles they began to freak out. I insisted that the big kids needed to go first because the anticipation of the shot would be much worse then the shot itself. I prayed this would be true. They kicked and screamed and Stephanie, Health, Hallie and myself fought back the urge to cry with them. Luckily the big kids found out that it really wasn't as bad as it had appeared. When all was said and done Davona gave the big kids suckers and we sat outside while they soaked up the extra love and attention. The shot soon became a distant memory. I think that's how life is sometimes that the anticipation of things is often much worse then whatever challenges we are facing and that at the end there is a sweet reward. Too often we spend our time being fearful of something when the reality of it is not at all what we had anticipated. I have no doubt that the shot was a little scary and painful, but I'm sure that the measles & worms would have been worse and that if allowed to dwell the anticipation would have been the worst part. I am thankful to have grown up in a house were we never spent our time worrying about tomorrow. In Luke 12:25 Jesus says "And which of you by worrying can add an hour to his life?" Thank God that there is much better ways to spend the hour ;)Christy