Handle With Care

Soo this week I've gotten farther into Handle With Care and already it took a surprising turn. I'm not going to give away the whole book, but I'll recap a little. The O'Keefe family is struggling with their daughter, Willow, who has a disease causing her bones to break at the slightest touch. Willow's mom, Charlotte, dedicates her whole life to taking care of Willow and making sure she's happy. Sean and Charlotte also have an older daughter, Amelia. Amelia loves her sister and her family, but I can clearly see it's hard for Amelia always being thought of second. Willow is always the first priority.
In the story this week, Charlotte and Sean find out they could file a lawsuit against the nurse who helped with Charlotte's pregnancy with Willow. It turns out Willow's birth can be considered a wrongful birth because the nurse should of detected earlier that Willow had the disease. There's two problems though: 1) If the O'Keefes went through with this lawsuit, they'd be claiming that Willow should have never been born (that's basically what a wrongful birth case states.) and 2) The nurse that they would be suing is Charlotte's best friend. However, if they won the case, so much money and assistance would be gained to take care of Willow.
So this is where the book starts to make you think. Do you put your child before someone who helped raise your child? Willow is a happy, extremely smart five-year old. I think Charlotte should be thankful that Willow's even alive. So why would she file this lawsuit? She loves her daughters and can't imagine feigning that she wishes Willow hadn't been born. Also Charlotte would be betraying her best friend by basically taking money from her when all of Willow's life she's been willing to help. Also, I wonder if Charlotte would file the lawsuit because she feels sorry for herself. She has a right to, I suppose, because it would be so difficult to cope with having a daughter with such a terrible disease. Charlotte might be filing the lawsuit,though, because her best friend has a healthy daughter and therefor owes her something. This story ties to so many things in everyone's lives. Should you make decisions out of self pity? Should you always make sure your future comes first, or be happy in the present? Charlotte could just let Willow be happy with her life now, but she cares more about what will happen to her in the future. There's a lot brought up in this book to think about and I'm really liking it so far !