{"id":6398,"date":"2024-07-15T15:42:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-15T13:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/bibliotheek\/the-little-sister-of\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T14:42:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T12:42:51","slug":"the-little-sister-of","status":"publish","type":"library_pt","link":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/library\/kolommen\/the-little-sister-of\/","title":{"rendered":"The little sister of&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-post-date\"><time datetime=\"2024-07-15T15:42:00+02:00\">15 July 2024<\/time><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her brother Milan (8) was 2.5 months old when he was diagnosed with eye cancer. After years of hospital visits, we were able to save 30% of the vision in one eye. His other eye is now an artificial eye\u2014or, as Milan so beautifully puts it, \u201chis special eye.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What my wife and I had to go through with Milan is a scar that will never fade. But he\u2019s still alive, and we\u2019re so grateful for that. It\u2019s made him a hero. To go through something like that at such a young age\u2014it really makes you see him in a whole new light. Every burst of laughter, every tear, every cheeky remark hits us 100 times harder. Simply because we\u2019re so incredibly happy that he\u2019s still here. We make up for every day he suffered with \u201cthe best day ever.\u201d      <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Back to my daughter\u2019s question. She\u2019s certainly special. But thank God she\u2019s also a healthy child. The decision to have a second child wasn\u2019t an easy one for us. Could we handle it? What if she has it, too?       <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When Emma was born, we were a family. With her, a new chapter began, and we were fortunate enough to experience what it\u2019s like to raise a child in a completely ordinary way. Everything you read in the \u201cOei, I\u2019m Growing\u201d booklet suddenly turned out to be true! My love for her has never wavered. It\u2019s just different\u2014less burdened. And yes, in some ways, her life so far has been less extraordinary. That\u2019s why I understood her question so well.       <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She knows that Milan has gone through something special. It gets him attention. It gives him something she doesn\u2019t have, no matter how much she feels for him. That stings. The fact that she\u2019s \u201cnormal\u201d is a blessing for us. But for her, it\u2019s sometimes a burden. She takes steps in her little life that we don\u2019t even think twice about. But when Milan took those same steps, he was showered with compliments.       <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That doesn&#8217;t mean she&#8217;s jealous, by the way. On the contrary. She&#8217;s incredibly helpful and understanding. Every time we&#8217;re in a new place, she takes Milan by the hand and helps him identify all the potential dangers\u2014so that nothing happens to him.      <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So my answer to her question is simple: \u201cOf course you\u2019re special, sweetie. Just ask your brother.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Jan Burger<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cDad, why aren\u2019t I special?\u201d My daughter Emma (5) asked me this last week. It took me by surprise, but I also immediately understood where the question was coming from.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":6399,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_daextauttol_enable_tooltips":""},"library_cat":[112],"class_list":["post-6398","library_pt","type-library_pt","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","library_cat-kolommen"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library_pt\/6398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library_pt"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/library_pt"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"library_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library_cat?post=6398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}