The Hard Way

"Wouldn't it have been easier if you had terminated the pregnancy?"
These words came out of the mouth of a woman as she looked directly into the shiny, round, blue eyes of my son.
She had asked about his feeding tube, and i explained to her that he had a heart defect that made his appetite not what it should be, so the tube is how he eats.
Then she followed up with the doozy about wacking my son,, I said, " my life has never been easy, i don't do easy, and certainly wouldn't trade easy for my son".

If you know me then you know I do EVERYTHING the hardest way possible, not even on purpose , it just turns out that way.
I was born early weighing in at a little over 2 pounds and spent months in the NICU,, 30 years ago I wasn't expected to make it, and i did,, the hard way.

Math in elementary school,, a DISASTER always got to the solution everyone else did, it just took me 20 min longer, because i would make up a new way to get there that was unbelievable complicated.
Hiking-always took the longest hardest trails without even knowing it. (or took trails that required you to wear snow shoes,, and had no snow shoes,, melissa you were involved in that).
Losing about 60 pounds of pregnancy weight in record time because I slave away at the gym.
The list is long,,, always harder, not better, but harder.

Now my beautiful son Asher, the baby of my dreams without knowing it and through no fault of his own is following that trend.
He entered this world, and surgery after surgery finally made it home.
He uses his foot to hold his book, and his only good hand to turn pages.
He tries to crawl, and sometimes makes it but only if he drags his right arm.
He tries to sit up from a laying down position using only his left side.
He drinks from a bottle but never latches, just swirls his tongue around till formula comes out.

Asher and I have a lot in common.
We came into this world the hard way fighting to survive.
We learn and grow, the hard way, and most likely will both leave this earth the hard way.

I guess I should have speed dialed my mom, handed the lady my cell, and have her ask my mother..."wouldn't it have been easier if you had terminated the pregnancy?"