Praise and Thanksgiving

Daniel 2:23 I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king.

1st Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.





For the last few weeks, my family has been under a tremendous strain. Most of you know all that we have been going through (more on that in a moment). At many times, we have had to laugh (because it's either laugh or cry, so we choose to laugh) and mention Job's name. My mom especially has definitely felt like Job at times.



It occurred to me today that as I have shared our lives in this blog and my other one dedicated solely to Dad, I have only mentioned everything that has gone wrong in the last month or so. However, in the midst of all of this, there are also many things that have gone right, from the truly significant to the mundane. So in the spirit of thanksgiving from the above Bible verses, I thought I would review these things so that I don't give the impression that I am not aware of how deeply blessed my family is. I'll go ahead and recap all the bad things, and then mention the good things.



The BAD stuff:

• My dad has cancer. Terminal cancer. We found out November 25.


• My grandmother (who lives with my parents) entered the hospital New Year's Eve and is still there. We have stayed at her bedside nearly 'round the clock, as there is only a miniscule chance that she will ever recover.


• My mom had to put her beloved cat to sleep over the holidays after it was discovered that the cat has feline AIDS.


• During the recent flooding, my parents' basement flooded and all of the carpet had to be ripped out, as well as the padding.


• Laura and Eric have mono, and he is trying to teach and take care of their kids while Laura is at the hospital with our grandmother, and Laura is trying to take care of her kids, as well as Jack, the little boy she keeps, when she isn't sitting at our grandmother's bedside.


• I am juggling my job, two kids, and trying to help Mom with both Dad and my grandmother.


• I have a frozen water pipe in my house and it remains to be seen whether it will burst.


• Oh, yeah...my mom had to call Hospice twice in one day for two different patients--Dad and her mother.

Ok, that's a lot of bad stuff. I mean, it's a LOT of bad stuff. My poor mom is a walking zombie as she juggles all this.

But so much good has come from this. God tells us that we are to praise Him in all things, in spite of all things, and because of all things. So let's review the good.

The GOOD stuff:

• My parents have insurance.


• The nurses taking care of my grandmother are fabulous and amazing.


• One of the nurses taking care of my grandmother goes to church with my sister, and has been praying for my grandmother because of the prayer list, not even realizing she had her as a patient! How amazing! And what a blessing this nurse is.


• We have all learned what amazing, incredible, inspiring friends we have. When my parents' basement flooded, six of their friends gave up a Saturday to come rip the carpet out--AFTER four total strangers (men from Laura's church) showed up to wet-vac the water up and move furniture out of the way. Food is delivered to Mom and Dad's house on a regular basis. My parents' neighbors, Tim and Sherry--they cook, they do things around the house, they look for various medicines to ease some of Dad's symptoms--the long and short of it is that no one ever deserved friends or neighbors as amazing as they are, and it is so humbling to see how much they love Dad and our family. Laura has people from her church crawling out of the woodwork to watch her children so she can go to the hospital to relieve Mom, since Eric is smack in the middle of wrestling season and often can't be there to watch the kids.


• Laura and I have amazing, wonderful, incredible, understanding husbands. I have barely seen my kids in a week, and Mark has taken over everything without complaint. He picks them up, feeds them, plays with them, and puts them to bed. I know he wonders if he still has a wife, but I haven't heard a single complaint. Eric is the same. He is Mr. Mom to Emma and Luke.


• My grandmother ate a container of applesauce after taking no food whatsoever for an entire week.


• Mom has friends who have been coming to the hospital to sit with my grandmother to relieve her. These are wonderful women (Evelyn, Joyce, and my mother-in-law, Charlotte) who have given of their own time to help my mom out.


• My father is a Christian. This probably should have been the number one thing on my list, actually. We have no fear of losing him (other than our own selfishness) because we know he will be fine. He'll be up there giving God pointers on pulling catfish out of the river (I'm kidding, of course, but still...).


• My husband and I both still have jobs in this yucky economy. With everything that has happened, I can still be thankful for things like this. Gas prices have gone down, along with prices on many other goods, so things could be MUCH worse in the financial department.


• I have a warm house and plenty of clothing to put on in these frigid temperatures.


• My husband and I have cars that run and can get us where we need to go.


• Our children are healthy and happy.


• We have plenty to eat.


• Mark's parents are healthy and able to help with the grandkids.


• I found cute boots for Kate at Target for 75% off (I told you I was thankful for the mundane, too!). :)

• And finally, I am thankful that we are able to find humor in all of this (at times), and that no one has had a nervous breakdown as of yet. God seems to be providing the strength that we need to get through this, one day at a time.

We do still covet your prayers. God provides us with strength, yes, but still, this is not easy. But I did want to take a moment to express that I do have a thankful spirit through all of this. God is good.