She won the lottery

And I won the lottery. My son won the lottery. Because we were born in Norway, one of the richest countries in the world. Where health care is for free. With a great welfare system. You can get an education for free. With a little effort and determination, the sky is the limit. I read a blog post today which brought tears to my eyes. (Here's the link, but it's in Norwegian.) It's about a Norwegian girl working with slum kids in Uganda, and she tells a story about what happens when one of the babies she works with gets sick. Long story short, because this Norwegian girl ends up taking the baby to a private clinic (whose main clientele is rich tourists with food poisoning) the girl is properly diagnosed and saved. The baby was first taken to a public doctor and after lining up for 5 hours (with a very sick baby), the doctor whisks them off after 5 minutes. He doesn't know what's wrong with her, and there are so many people waiting for him, people on the verge of dying. The doctor simply has to move on to the ones he can help. I can't even begin to fathom the hopelessness and despair of being a mother in such circumstances.

My children will never have to go hungry. They will never have to be sick without anyone having time to examine them properly and care for them. If they fall seriously ill, heaven and earth will be set in motion to find out what is wrong.

Reading that post gave me a little perspective. Because sometimes I feel a hint of self pity because we still don't live in the picture-perfect house of my dreams. But I am so ridiculously blessed, so lucky! I won the lottery. My kids won the lottery. (And it 's not exactly impossible that I'll have that house someday, in addition to everything else I have been blessed with. Self pity, really? I should be ashamed.)

(Knitting details: The beautiful set my daughter is wearing was made by my mother (on my prompting) for my sister's daughter 2 years ago. Gotta love hand-me-downs like this one.

Pattern in Norwegian only: 0808 Sandnes Alpakka 0-4 år (Lua tror jeg er Nøstebarns oppskrift.)

Yarn: Dale babyull)