Bunny's Ears

Thank you all for your puppy comments! My husband and I have a bunch to consider and I'll let you know when something comes of all the considering.

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(Names have been changed to protect the innocent.:-D)

A couple of weeks back my 10 yr-old daughter, Bunny, fell off her bike. She naturally flung out her hands to catch herself and ended up hurting her wrist. We iced it and gave her ibuprofen and waited to see how it would be. She was doing better, but then the next day, it was still hurting and was swollen. So, we headed off to urgent care to get an x-ray. She was well cared for and everyone thought it was probably broken. However, she was blessed to only be bruised and wore a wrist brace for a couple days and is back to being as good as ever.

While we were waiting at the hospital, Bunny and I thought back over previous trips there. We discusses her brother's trips for stitches (only my 8 yr-old boy has had to have them...maybe its just a boy-right-of-passage or something). We talked about the time her little sister had shoved craft wax up her nose. But the most interesting past visit was withBunny herself.

It all began (for me anyway) with my 2nd grade Bunny complaining of an earache. As she hadn't had an ear infection since she was a baby, I was confident it would pass. I gave her a pain reliever and she felt better the next day. But, the next night, her ear was hurting again. It was a bit red but she wasn't feverish or anything. Finally, Bunny admitted, she had stuck something into her ear.

I was confused because even as a two year-old she hadn't stuck things in her ears. It seems one day (a couple weeks back at this point) she had been sitting on the floor in the reading area of the classroom. Other kids in the class were working on art projects. As such things happen, there were pinto beans on the floor in the reading area from this art project. Bunny decided this was a great opportunity to be funny and put a pinto bean cradled in each ear. The other kids laughed. This was good as funny is not generally Bunny's strong side. (Caring and consideration and empathy tend to be her stronger traits..).

She was recieving such positive reactions, she would replace the pinto beans when they would fall out. Until....(isn't there always an until?) she accidentally pushed one of the pinto beans into the ear canal. When trying to remove the snug fitted bean from the ear, it only pushed further down the slick canal. Suddenly, the game was over. But so was the free time for the children. Bunny never told her teacher, or her friends about the treasure she'd unexpectedly hidden away in her ear.

Now, a couple weeks later, that ear was hurting. She was afraid to tell anyone. Her need for approval and to keep others happy kept her silent. But faced with pain, and a confused parent, she finally told me she had a bean in her ear. (I didn't get the whole story until later, so all I heard at first was that there was a bean in her ear...talk about adding to the confusion...heh). I grabbed a flashlight and determined that yes, there was a pinto bean in her ear. Dad had to take a look to believe it himself. We quickly realized, we were no match for the bean in the ear and I headed off to urgent care with an embarrassed little girl.

Every time the tale had to be told, I laughed. I couldn't help it. Unfortunately, I think my little girl would have preferred me to be angry over laughing. Thankfully, the doctor was able to remove the bean with no lasting effects. We had to place antibiotic drops in the ear for the next week (it had been in there for two weeks after all) but otherwise no other problems with it.

I was grateful to see my now, older and wiser daughter was able to honestly laugh at the experience herself as we sat waiting for a much more normal experience. In fact, she was praised by the doctors and nurses because she had been wearing her helmet. She felt rather proud of herself by the time we left.

Talking about it, also offered me a chance to help her learn from the past mistake in a way, she couldn't have learned then. It is tough to learn lessons when embarrassed. I compared the waiting to tell the bean troubles to me to how she sometimes waits to talk about other problems she is having. She tends to worry quietly and will get worked up over something before even letting on to the rest of us that she has a problem. I reminded her about times we have worked together to solve some of her recent struggles and that by dealing with problems quickly, they really do go away quicker. But if we just pretend the problem isn't there, eventually we get infected ears. Or sleepless nights and broken hearts..as the case may be.


Now, this weekend, I have been trying to encourage my husband to deal with a looming problem. He feels quite overwhelmed and has been practicing some of his best avoidance techniques. (Some I use myself on occassion..) I know better than to try to force him to do anything and anger won't help. So, what else can I do? As adults, we can be very good about ignoring our own proverbial pinto beans in our ears. We also, really do know better.



Today at church, a comment was made about repentance that has stuck with me. When I spend time beating up on myself, and telling myself how awful I am, I am sinning. See, God does not think of me as awful and incapable. He loves me and sees my potentials even when I am blind to them. I think I need to trusts God's view of me a bit more. And if my dear husband cannot trust that I see how amazing he is, I hope he can trust that God sees it.