Quarantine. Embrace the Gift of Time.
Knowing that this moment might be all we ever find.
Quarantine. For the Emmons family, it is a Gift of Time. Isolation can be freedom from distraction, freedom from the stares of shame, freedom to move at our pace, and freedom to learn new skills. For my daughter Ruby — my life purpose is to make the complex, overwhelming, or insurmountable more manageable. This weekend we used the time to hop back on two wheels and try again. She’s 10.
Ten years ago, I delivered my daughter in a house. There were no warning signs before birth. At birth, she stopped breathing properly and skin turned a shade of blue. We rushed to the hospital. An entire Cardiac Team surrounded her EKG results to inform us Ruby was born with a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot & Pulmonary Atresia and MAPCAs. Days later we found out she was born with a missing portion of her 22nd chromosome, an incurable condition called 22q11.2 Deletion, with over 80 different developmental challenges over a spectrum of issues that may occur as she grows. Weeks later, Ruby was diagnosed with failure to thrive & was unable to consume food by mouth, meaning she would have to be fed for 4 years with a G/J tube on a feeding pump. Months later, we waited until Ruby’s heart was strong enough to conduct a 12-hour surgery and had a donor available to get parts from. 5 years later she had another heart surgery and replaced parts that did not grow with her with porcine parts. Last year, Ruby was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, an autoimmune disorder that challenges daily life: continuous testing of glucose levels, measuring every little bit of carbs that we consume with extreme care, and perform daily injections of insulin — nonstop worries and challenges — but without overcoming, there is no life. A life that had a probability of limited time from the very start.
Just look at the excitement on Ruby’s face. We found a flat abandoned street and rode. Isolation, freedom, and nothing but time to overcome things that we couldn’t before.
Quarantine? Social Distancing? Yes. A Challenge. But this ain’t nothing. It’s a Gift of Time. Embrace that gift of time, knowing that this moment might be all we ever find.
Now with 20 years of experience, Dan Emmons strives to make issues that seem complex, overwhelming, or insurmountable more manageable for the Team, and to provide exceptional service that exceeds clients’ expectations. For more information, contact him on LinkedIn or through Emmonspired LLC.
