Soak

My sweet niece gave me bath salts for Christmas. She also gave me a lovely note as to why "May you have many more Bath Salt Days, the ones you would like to soak up and absorb into your soul." 

I loved this for many reasons 

(1) because some one is reading my blog :) 
(2) because my sweet niece wants me to have more lovely, soaky days. The bath salts are yellow and purple and they smell sweet of lavender, lemon and love. 

Sigh. 

Today was a bath salt day- a day I could soak in. I need to remember these days so that when I have a 'I need to scrub the ICK off my day' type of day, I can still remember to inhale the lavender and lemon of life.

No surprise to the magic of the day, it connected three things very important to me; my work, Children's Hospital and last but certainly not least.....dress up

I KNOW! We are quite fabulous. 

I work with a non-profit group. Since we work with non-profits, we decided we should something for the community and volunteer. And you know how I love my hospital.....so here we are. 

Today we did a 'Photo Booth' where kids and parents could pick different props, have their picture taken, print it out and make a frame.....how COOL was our photo booth? 

One little girl came down; curly red hair, pink glasses and hooked up to chemo. She drug her IV around like it wasn't a thing, because in her mind it wasn't.....and there were more important things to do than be hooked to chemo. She had to find the perfect pink glasses to match her pink crown. 

Mamas and Daddy's posed with their kiddos, picking out Batman masks and bubble letters that said 'KAPOW!' or 'BANG!'. They all took their pictures, decorated their frames and went onto appointments or back to patient rooms. 

One little guy did NOT want his picture taken, he was being discharged and walked quickly ahead as his dad pulled a wagon of bags and suitcases. Walk on Little Man....Walk On

We took over 100 pictures, ran out of stickers and foamy decorative pieces and at the end our non-profit team was exhausted. We dismantled our photo booth, gave away our left over balloons and packed up to go home. 

Walking out of the hospital, every child in the waiting area had a balloon and carefully held a picture frame with a precious picture. Everyone seemed content, happy, there were no tears shed. 

Well except for me.....I tried to restrain an ugly cry or two. I know, you're shocked. 

And so I soak in the day, the little girl with the red hair, the all-too familiar smell of industrial sanitizing wipes, the bittersweet memories of this place with My Girl and last but very not least the energy of good people. 

I soak.