“What are those things that Chewbacca ate called again?” Cody looked at me slightly disgusted. “Porgs. And don’t remind me. That’s just so sad.”

Cody is a sensitive child. I think every day that I picked him up from preschool he had a dandelion, a twig, or a pine cone as a gift for me (I actually still have the pine cone collection in my car by the gearshift).

Chuck and I often hear him talking to bugs, “Hello. Who are you?” I heard that this morning actually. We had some weird bug in the house that I had unsuccessfully tried to swat last night. Cody found it this morning, used the fly swatter to scoop it up, and then opened the patio door and gently let it out.

Calling them his outdoor pets, he loves the birds in the backyard too. He was quite concerned about who was going to keep our bird feeder filled while we were at the hospital for his daddy’s surgery. Thankfully we have some very good friends!

Cody is so sensitive that he had a seizure three years ago the day of Chuck’s first surgery. Needless to say, we were quite worried about him surrounding this surgery too. That may have been the biggest stressor for us quite frankly. When friends asked leading up to the surgery how they could pray for us, we’d ask them to pray for peace for Cody during the surgery and good sleep at night at the hotel. He also sleeps very poorly any place other than his bed and consequently regularly has seizures when we travel – which we have pretty much stopped doing.

So, facing a 7- to 10-day stay was anxiety-producing to say the least.

But God answered those prayers, and the way Cody dealt with the surgery and what ended up being a three-week stay was truly miraculous. I have had the idea for this post for months and was going to call it “The Face of Resiliency.” I have picture after picture of Cody during our stay because not only did he not have a seizure at all, even though he was sick a few days which is also a seizure trigger for him, he enjoyed those three weeks!

He got to go to parks and the hotel pool with my friends and family who drove 30-90 miles each way just to stay with him during the day while I was at the hospital. Friends who brought him presents like Legos! The hotel had a small half basketball court in the back where he and I played once the snow melted. Seeming to just accept that daddy had to stay in the hospital much longer than we had expected, he made the most of the trip, sleeping well at night and laughing each day.

I haven’t been sure what exactly to write along with these photos though, which is why it has remained just an idea on my computer. Even though today is “new post” day, yesterday I was too tired to try to write something. But then I got to thinking maybe the pictures documenting his God-given resiliency during that three-week stay are enough – pictures of Cody giving me a thumbs-up on the hotel gym equipment, snuggled in his very own queen-size bed, finding cozy little window sills to wedge himself into in Chuck’s hospital room.

I decided I could publish a picture blog instead. A plog!

Not to be confused with a porg. But we won’t talk about that.

The Face of Resiliency