Love languages
We've been talking with our kids recently about the different ways we each communicate. Interestingly enough the sermon at church recently dovetailed with our conversations. The way each of us gives and receives love is different. Not so different that there isn't overlap, but sometimes different enough to be misunderstood. Gary Chapman wrote a book called The Five Love Languages. Its premise is that there are basically five ways people express love: through gifts; quality time together; physical touch; acts of service; and words of affirmation. So I thought I'd have the kids take a little test to see what their language was at this time. I kind of thought I knew where they would fall on the scale. Boy was I surprised. The ones who are our 'snugglers' - I thought they would score high on touch, but they didn't. Now granted it could be the test they took, it was pretty basic and kind of leading. But it could also be just where they are right now. All four girls scored high on Gifts; two were also Time, and the other two were Acts of Service.
Well, I got to put into practice some of my "want to do" list. I've been meaning to practice each of the five languages with each of the kids.
Last Saturday I got to spend some quality time with Middle Child. Eight hours actually of just her and me, and various strangers who passed by. Miss Middle has been having some pain and we thought we had it taken care of the previous week. Well Saturday morning I found her in pain on the bathroom floor after having thrown up. The pediatrics office didn't open until 9 and I figured they would probably send us to the ER anyways, so I took her in. I was worried it was her appendix. We got admitted, saw a Dr fairly quickly - within half an hour - then had some tests run. Then we sat and waited. The nurses there were great! Especially when Miss M got sick again. They pushed things along for us it seemed. We waited about an hour for the lab results to come back. But we still hadn't had the ultrasound. After about two plus hours, we went for the ultrasound. Then it was back to the waiting area (inside the emergency dept, not the general waiting area). And another hour and half wait. After discussing the results with the Dr, we decided to go with the CT scan. So we waited, and then had the scan. Another hour plus and we got the results from that. Finally the Dr took us aside and discussed the results. It wasn't appendicitis. Thankfully! There was an inflammation, and there will be some follow up visits with our pediatrician and probably a GI doctor.
But eight hours of quality time together, waiting, watching other patients come through, and watching HGTV or the Disney channel .... I think we've made a memory.
Well, I got to put into practice some of my "want to do" list. I've been meaning to practice each of the five languages with each of the kids.
Last Saturday I got to spend some quality time with Middle Child. Eight hours actually of just her and me, and various strangers who passed by. Miss Middle has been having some pain and we thought we had it taken care of the previous week. Well Saturday morning I found her in pain on the bathroom floor after having thrown up. The pediatrics office didn't open until 9 and I figured they would probably send us to the ER anyways, so I took her in. I was worried it was her appendix. We got admitted, saw a Dr fairly quickly - within half an hour - then had some tests run. Then we sat and waited. The nurses there were great! Especially when Miss M got sick again. They pushed things along for us it seemed. We waited about an hour for the lab results to come back. But we still hadn't had the ultrasound. After about two plus hours, we went for the ultrasound. Then it was back to the waiting area (inside the emergency dept, not the general waiting area). And another hour and half wait. After discussing the results with the Dr, we decided to go with the CT scan. So we waited, and then had the scan. Another hour plus and we got the results from that. Finally the Dr took us aside and discussed the results. It wasn't appendicitis. Thankfully! There was an inflammation, and there will be some follow up visits with our pediatrician and probably a GI doctor.
But eight hours of quality time together, waiting, watching other patients come through, and watching HGTV or the Disney channel .... I think we've made a memory.
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