So this year we are looking forward into a future that we are not certain of and many people may see the negative— a day before thanksgiving roof leak and finding that we need a new roof much sooner than our home inspection stated, a new alternator scheduled for our main car next Tuesday (hopefully it holds out that long), new windshield wiper gears for the other car, oh and yeah- the impending joblessness. This year appears to be a time of darkness, but this is the most exciting year that we have ever had as we are a complete family this year for the first time ever. This time last year, I was recovering from a very bad long lasting reaction to a medicine that he should have never been given, and Mom was just starting to realize that she was unable to tolerate any disease modifying medicines. We were still actively seeking a way to pay for a private adoption and had just figured out a way to do it in two years. We still prayed that last year would be the last one that we would have as a family of two plus the dog, but we couldn’t even conceive that we would have Hope in our family. So despite the outward appearance that we are struggling, we couldn’t possibly be more grateful this year for the blessings that we have had come into our life, as well as for those people such as Hope’s sister’s adoptive family who cared for her for 8 months while God moved us into a position to have her join us, her caseworker, her therapy team, and of course her birth family who remind us that things could always be worse.
We are so incredibly blessed to be where we are in our life together. I especially am grateful this year for my incredible wife who has been through the ringer this year to be able to get her in position to be a full time mom. She and I have always been open and actively talking with each other building our relationship, and this year has been no exception. She has had an amazing ability to go from fighting huge cognitive issues caused by her MS which has stopped her from the job she loved to becoming a stay at home mom to the daughter we love in literally less than four days. She still shows that she has the same issues but the miracle behind this is that she uses a different set of skills to take care of Hope. Outside of that, she has still been amazing at facing her struggles and working to overcome them. When life gives her a challenge, I am always awestruck by her ability to navigate it and make the best of the situation. She has gone from getting legislation passed and keeping MS meds available for Indiana Medicaid patients to working to ensure that Hope has everything she needs to excel and amaze her therapists. There are times when I know that she gets frustrated that she can’t sit down and work filling out forms that she use to help clients with, but when I come home and hear my daughter pronounce the word “DAD” completely, I can help her fill out a lot of forms for that type of reward!
So as we face what is an uncertain year, we look back and realize that every year is one of great uncertainty, so we look forward to next year with gratitude for the blessings that have brought us where we are today and faith that we will be looking back next year awestruck with where we have been. Our hope and prayer for everyone who is reading these words that you are as blessed as we have been and that you can continue to grow in your personal journey with God. God Bless you this Thanksgiving weekend.
