Passion's Instinct

Fifty Eight

Hayden

Lately Temple had been trouble seeing, we thought, so today, we were going to take her to the eye doctor to get her checked out.

Neither Natalie nor I had come from families that had a history of sight issues, including the both of us, so we were slightly concerned about this.

We did know that one of Temple's friend at school had just gotten glasses, and had apparently explained to her why she had them and how they helped her to see better. At first, we thought she was faking. And then, we started getting calls from her teacher that Temple said she couldn't see the board in school, and if we didn't deal with it soon, the teacher would do something about it herself.

Temple had started to complain that our faces looked 'fuzzy' when she looked at us from across the room. She said she couldn't see the TV when she sat on the couch.

And worst of all, she always mentioned how when she ran around the house playing with Sawyer, she couldn't see exactly what was ahead of her and would often trip and fall.

I thought it was just because she was clumsy at first, but if she was experiencing all of those other problems with her sight, it very well may have been her sight that was causing her to trip and fall.

Luckily we had gotten a babysitter to watch Sawyer and August while we were gone, just to make it easier for us while the eye doctor was explaining everything to us and taking the tests.

On our way there, Temple sat in the back, asking us all sorts of questions about what would happen.

"Am I gonna get any shots there?"

"No, honey, no shots," Natalie answered. "No needles or anything scary you have to worry about."

"Well, what if I get this allergy to something and they have to put a shot in me? Then what?"

Natalie laughed, looking back at Temple. "That won't happen."

"We're here," I announced as I turned the wheel, driving into the parking lot for the eye doctor.

"No!" Temple cried, kicking the back of my seat repeatedly.

"Temple, it's alright," I told her, getting out of the car. I shut my door and opened hers, lifting her out of her seat and setting her on the ground.

"No, no, no! Hold me, Daddy!" she screamed.

"Shh. What do you say?"

"Please pick me up, Daddy," she said, calmer this time, and I lifted her into my arms and carried her into the office, with Natalie following.

Once we were signed in, we had waited for five minutes, and the doctor called us back to do some testing. Temple had air blown into her eyes, one puff an eye, which she fussed about a little, but once it was done, she was over it. She had to look into several devices and tell the doctor what she saw, and overall, she did really well.

But unfortunately, Temple did have to get glasses because her vision was 20/50 already at the age of three.

So while we were sitting at the desk with the doctor discussing the finances, insurance and plans for the next appointment, Temple stood at the display with an assistant, picking out her glasses frames.

Temple ran over to us with some purple frames, oval shaped. She tried them on and smiled at me, asking, "Do you like them, Daddy?"

"Yeah! They're very... stylish."

She smiled even wider at this. "Yay!" She ran over to Natalie and showed her, and she smiled. "Cute!" Natalie said, running her fingers through Temple's curls. "Are you sure you want those?"

"I'm sure, I'm sure, I'm sure, Mommy!" Temple jumped up and down, her curls bouncing with her. She looked at the doctor and asked him if he liked them on her, and he answered with an honest, "They look perfect on you, Temple."

So we checked the price and were told we would be informed when to pick her glasses up, which would be in about a week.

We thanked the doctor as we left and he moved on to his next patient, a teenage boy. The whole way home, Temple talked about how excited she was to get her new glasses.

I was excited for her, but sensed there were some future challenges to come with it.