It has been said that when God closes a door, He opens a window. The door slammed on my son’s intended Navy career last week and we are waiting for the window to be revealed.
When he was born, Ethan had ptosis, or a droopy eyelid. His pediatrician at the time said it was no big deal, it could be easily corrected when he was five or six, before he went to school. We went with that decision until we moved and changed doctors. The new guy was young and aggressive (the first one was into his 90s and could not retire because there was no one to fill his shoes) and was aghast the eye correction hadn’t been done by the time the boy was two.
It turned out he was correct and the surgery was undertaken right away, but not before pressure on the eye from that lid had misshapen the orb. That equated visual problems, continually stronger glasses, and sadly, disqualifies Ethan for military service because his vision can’t be corrected with glasses to near perfect.
What do you tell a youngster who thought he had a plan, figured out what to do with at least the next four years of his life? How do you ease that hurt and help him to find his way in a world that is nothing like it was when his parents graduated?
All we can do is watch and pray and hope and try to keep his spirits up until the right solution comes.
But we are in the same situation as all parents, trying to decide what is the best course of action for our children. Do we send them back to school in person? Virtually? Homeschool? How do we present the social aspects they need while keeping them safe from something we can’t see?
There is no easy answer. All we can do is remember when a door closes, a window opens.
Connie Burcham can be reached at Editor@WatongaRepublican.com