Misty

Just Keep Knitting! Just Keep Knitting!

For those that are fans of “Nemo” you’ll recognize the reference! This variation of the song keeps running through my head as I’ve been knitting on and off for several days now. You see, my daughter, whom I love to itty bitty pieces, asked me if I would knit a scarf for a Minecraft Marathon in support of Child’s Play.

I don’t play Minecraft myself. I’d love to but if I spend another dollar on a game my husband is most likely going to divorce me. (She’s kidding.) We’re saving for a car this year so my gaming is going to be limited to WoW. Unless GW2 is FINALLY released. Then there’s going to be a battle like no other in this house, but that’s a whole other story!

But back to my knitting. Heather Lyn, Zuulzilla, asked me if I would knit a scarf for this marathon and of course, I said yes. Who am I to deny my daughter anything when she asks for so very little?

But then she told me that this scarf has to be special. A certain yarn, a certain color of yarn, and then to top it all off… it has to have red block things on it. Proof that I don’t play Minecraft as I have no clue what those red blocks are but dammit it will have red blocks!

Yesterday, after asking her to explain what the scarf is for (for the third time as she so patiently reminded me… when did she become the parent and me the child anyway?) it hit me that this really is for a worthy cause. It hit kind of close to home.

The way I understand it, Child’s Play provides children who are hospitalized with games to entertain them. I too have a son who was in and out of hospitals for the first eight years of his life due to severe sleep apnea. He stopped breathing in his sleep when he was six weeks old and was put on apnea monitors, which later led to a heart monitor and then later led to a CPAP machine as he got older. He finally outgrew this around the age of eight, but I do remember all of the days in the hospitals; walking with him up and down the halls and wishing there were something to do to keep him happy.

Our situation was odd in that during the day he was a perfectly healthy child who seemed like he had no reason to be there. Nighttime was an entirely different story and was a living nightmare for me. During one sleep study he quit breathing 142 times in 8 hours. 64 of those times were for longer than 20 seconds. You think 20 seconds isn’t a long time, but try going through that with a child who isn’t breathing and there’s nothing that you can do because the hospital staff needs a “true reading” of how long the episodes are lasting. It’s the longest time period of a parents life. Trust me.

So, I’m knitting this scarf for my daughter, for my son, for Minecraft, for Child’s Play, and for every parent who’s had to sit and watch their child suffer through illnesses. It’s not much and I wish I could do so much more now than I really understand what Child’s Play is all about and what Minecraft is doing. But mostly, I’m knitting this scarf for every sick child who has to endure what they do, for every child with cancer, for every child everywhere who’s had to be hospitalized for days on end and can still show so much courage, patience, understanding, and most of all grace in the most unbelievable and heartbreaking circumstances.

This scarf, whether it brings $5 or $25 in the auction, is one of the most valuable things in my life as it’s reminded me of how lucky and blessed I am in that my children are all healthy now.

Thank you Minecraft and Child’s Play for reminding me of this!

-Misty

[Original story can be found here]