The Nurses Who Became Family

A Nurse Appreciation Week Post

I have a running joke that goes, “If your job has an appreciation week or month, you probably aren’t paid enough.” Sadly, that feels true for so many of the good nurses we know.

For the last four years, nurses have helped care for our son in our home. My middle son is extremely medically complex and fragile, and at different points my wife and I have practically lived in hospitals for months at a time. In this season of life, we are still in and out of doctors’ offices almost weekly.

At one point, we were approved for 24-hour home nursing care, though staffing shortages often made even those hours difficult to fill. At first, the arrangement was unnerving. We had to welcome strangers into our home and trust them around our children. My son stays on a heart monitor at night, and there have been seasons where every alarm mattered. If his heart rate dropped too low while he slept, it could become catastrophic very quickly. We had to trust that the person sitting beside him was not only personally trustworthy, but medically competent.

And somewhere along the way, these nurses stopped feeling like medical staff and started feeling like family. The Lord has used them to care for our children, encourage our hearts, and carry burdens with us that would have been impossible to bear alone. I want to honor a few of the people who have become deeply special to our family.

Rileigh

Rileigh was more than a friend. She truly became like a sister to my wife and me. She loved my children, and my children loved her. She was an amazing nurse primarily because she was an amazing person and friend.

In many ways, it is because of her that Knox can walk. When Knox was learning to walk, he did not take his first steps toward Mom or Dad. Completely unprompted, he walked toward Rileigh in the middle of a Books-A-Million.

Ri also fought her own medical battles after being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer that ultimately took her life. She and Knox became “rare condition buddies,” and we would often send pictures back and forth from the hospital of both of them receiving infusions. She loved my family to the very end and I know because of her faith that she is in the presence of the Lord and we will see her again.

Braicee

Braicee has walked with our family through it all. Our kids adore her, and her kids get along so well with ours. She is an excellent nurse and an even better friend.

She worked hard to earn her RN while balancing work in both hospital and home health settings. Since our boys are still young, they do not always fully understand the dynamic of home nursing. Honestly, I think our youngest genuinely believed that nurses like Braicee actually lived in our house.

Braciee has since moved away, but she remains a dear friend, and we are so proud of her.

Myra

Myra is one of the newest additions to our extended family, but she was one of the easiest people to warm up to. My kids absolutely love and adore her. She constantly goes above and beyond to show them how much she cares.

She has become something like a bonus grandma to our boys. She works nights, and during the chaos and exhaustion that often comes with raising three energetic boys in a disability family, Erin and I will sometimes just repeat to each other, “It’s going to be okay. Myra will be here at 7 p.m.”

Tiffany

Tiffany has been with us throughout this entire journey. She has been a behind-the-scenes champion for our boys.

She works another full-time job and has children of her own, yet she still makes time to come help us, often late into the night, just to give us a little rest. Honestly, much of the very little sleep Erin and I get is because of women like Tiffany and Myra.

She is also an incredible friend who listens, cares, and walks alongside us through every season.

Sha

Sha is one of the best nurses we have ever worked with, not just in our home but anywhere. She is incredibly smart and works unbelievably hard, both in her job and in her studies. While working full time, she also graduated with her RN.

She loves my boys, and they absolutely love her. She is also the only person I know who can successfully wrangle all the beautiful curls on my son’s head.

Thank God for Nurses

Each one of these nurses, along with so many others, has blessed our family deeply. This does not even include the unnamed nurses who cried with us, prayed with us, and laughed with us throughout this journey of medical complexity and disability parenting.

These are the nurses who quietly broke “the rules” in compassionate ways so we could better love and care for our children. The nurses who climbed onto hospital beds to perform CPR and emergency interventions. The nurses who took bites to the arm and sweated alongside Erin and me while we had to hold Knox still for an IV. The nurses who fought and advocated in rooms we could never enter so our children could receive the absolute best care possible.

Nursing is a profession that I believe is close to the heart of God. Scripture repeatedly calls God’s people to protect the vulnerable, care for the suffering, and bear one another’s burdens. Nurses live out those realities every single day, often in exhausting and unseen ways.

Jesus said that caring for the sick is one of the clearest reflections of love for Him:

“I was sick and you visited me.” (Matthew 25:36, ESV)

Paul reminds believers to:

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2, ESV)

And Proverbs teaches us:

“Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.” (Proverbs 19:17, ESV)

To the nurses who have cared for our family and countless others: thank you. Thank you for the sleepless nights, the compassion, the advocacy, the patience, and the sacrifice.

So join me in thanking God for the nurses in your life and praying for them faithfully.