Operation: Operation

My 15 1/2 year old baby underwent minor surgery at Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel in Petach Tikva yesterday. The center is very cheerfully decorated and the staff go out of their way to be child friendly. They patiently explain everything so that the fear of the unknown doesn't overwhelm both children and parents. They allow (actually at some stages of the treatment require) a parent to stay close to the child. All in all it was as positive an experience as an operation can be.

The child in the next bed was from Kfar Giladi, a kibbutz in the north, near Kiryat Shmoneh, and his parents were anxious to get home again.

The experience was a bit surealistic in other ways. The war news was not good, not on the military front and not from homefront. All day long my phone was ringing with calls from my other kids checking on how our girl was doing and checking up on what the others were doing.

One of my sons is involved in the fighting. At lunch time my husband called to find out how our daughter was holding up. He also told me that he received a call at home from a mother of one of the soldiers in our son's unit telling us that they were alright. Later on we heard that there were a score of soldiers injured and nine killed. One of them was my son's commander. May his memory be blessed and bless us.

My daughter and I are home now. Some of my children are attending funerals, others will be going off later.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a boring day?