Ah, the silence that only comes after Sidney is in bed, and Eli is reading. Both kids were in a great mood today after spending Saturday with dad. Yes, you heard correctly. I was sprung loose. My mom and I volunteered for a Mission of Mercy event. Mission of Mercy is a free dental clinic, funded entirely by donations and grants. It is a two day clinic, and on Friday alone 750 patients were seen. It is a massive operation, and it is fascinating to see how it is all set up. Equipment travels from one state to the next, and over a thousand volunteers take part. It is really quite amazing.
Coming out of the parking ramp at 6am, we walked past several hundred people through winding halls of the event center. Many spent the night on the floor and in the chilly skywalk, leading into the building. We quickly gathered our t-shirts and took a job in what I came to think of as the “bowels of the operation.” On the floor were curtained areas with rows upon rows of dental chairs on the floor of a large event center. My mom was a dental assistant for many years. She was quickly able to explain the different treatment areas. I felt like I had landed on mars, but I was relieved to find out I only had to match colors to find the appropriate treatment areas. It was our job as volunteers to make sure patients were taken to the correct treatment areas.
What started out as a fairly quiet area suddenly became a buzz of drills and other dental equipment. Our receiving area for patients was positioned next to endodontic (root canals). Aren’t you impressed by my new dental vocabulary? I also watched as row up row of people were shuffled in and out of another area where people received anesthesia with chair upon chair of people receiving pain numbing medicine. At the beginning my mom advised me that not everyone could volunteer in the environment. I will readily admit, I was grateful for a drape separating me from seeing the majority of what was going on. My mother, however, was fascinated by any glimpse she might catch of a procedure. We plan on making this an annual event, so I am hoping it is a decent distance next year so we can take part again.
It seems walking on concrete floors for 11 hours was a tiring experience, and I was thankful for the extra hour of sleep. On a totally unrelated topic, Sidney is wearing sunglasses right now, pointing to herself saying “pretty me.” No confidence issues there. I have signed Sidney up for a drop off child care service. There are only 6 kids in the room and 2 adults. They have a great reputation, and I am hoping this will help me to find a bit of balance. I will only be using it a couple of times a month for a morning here and there, but I think it will help me stay caught up.
Today is Orphan Sunday, so I thought would close my blog with the following statistics:
· -In the world, there are 143 million children who have lost one or both parents.That is almost half the population of the U.S.
· -Every year 12 million children become orphans.
· -87.6 million orphans live in Asia.
· -43.4 million orphans live in Sub-Saharan Africa.
· -More than one third of all Americans have considered adopting, but no more than 2% have actually adopted.
· -Only 4% of families with children contain adopted children.
·
No comments:
Post a Comment