Campbell's Rainbows

I know this is such a cheesy name for this post...but there is just no way around it. Last week, on the last day of school here in Bernardsville my friends were driving their five year old daughter Campbell home from Boston's Children's Hospital where she had a tumor removed from the base of her spine. (they actually overlapped with Charlie while they were there for a check up).  An email went out to Heartworkers that we needed to have rainbows ready for Campbell when she got home and most Heartworkers knew why...

Almost 2 years ago Campbell needed emergency brain surgery after waking up one morning and not being able to walk straight. On the day we knew she was coming home, Heartworks organized welcome home signs to be made and placed all over the front yard for when they drove up the driveway. My friend Geneene and I were over there all morning taping beautiful signs made by friends, neighbors, Heartworkers and Campbell's classmates to be displayed ever so perfectly across the yard. All morning long people dropped off their signs and helped us get everything ready for Campbell. Then we got a call that they would not be home until after dark, so we put up spotlights so Campbell could still see the colorful words written to her "WE LOVE YOU CAMPBELL!!" and "WELCOME HOME CAM!" and "GOD BLESS CAMPBELL"... and then just as we got the entire lawn covered in signs and balloons...it began to rain. I was back at my house by this point and was looking out the window as I began to feel the pit in my stomach grow as it rained and rained and rained all over our welcome home wishes. I started to get annoyed..and the voices in my head were saying "Really God?? Rain on her signs? They are coming home from a totally traumatizing event and we are trying to make just one little piece of it just a little teenie bit better...Really?? Rain? in the dark for the little girl with cancer??" I was really annoyed...and whenever I am really annoyed I always do the same thing- pray. It's the only thing that can get me un-blocked and help me to see clearly through the annoyance. Annoyance is always a sure sign that I am trying to get things to work my way and that I am being short sighted. And even though praying at this point is also super annoying, I did it anyway. I prayed that we are able to let go of the outcome, that Campbell and her family would still feel the love we have for them (even though its all ruined now, you knw, because of the darkness and the rain), and that somehow the effort would still salvagable. Well...as the story goes, Campbell came home in the dark and pouring rain and as she drove up the driveway she started yelling "Look at the rainbows!! Look at the rainbows!!" Yes, the words I was holding onto so tightly smeared across all the poster boards and created "rainbows" for Campbell. What we had all forgotten is that she can't read and so the words were meaningless to her. What she saw was something she understood, something that represents the calm after a storm, something that gives hope and faith in a new day...rainbows. And it could not have been more perfect of an outcome.
So this time when Campbell was coming home from Boston we made sure her lawn was covered in rainbows.