GIVING THANKS

Kelli at http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/ is hosting a "Giving Thanks celebration Monday-Thursday of this week. Everyone who participates will be entered into a drawing at the end of the week. I would like to participate by telling you about Thanksgiving last year. The photos above were made last year on Thanksgiving day.

Last year was a bad year for our family. My dad had been sick for several years and and had to be placed on life support several times but he always overcame it and was able to come home. In March of last year he fell and broke his hip and had to spend 4 weeks in a rehab facility. He came home and seemed to be doing better. He was still very ill and we knew he might not be with us another year so we wanted to make Father's Day special for him. On Father's Day morning my phone rang and it was my brother. He told me that when he went to wake our dad up that morning that he wouldn't wake up. Our dad had past away in his sleep sometime during the night. I was crushed. While my brother and sister have always been closer to our mom, I was a daddy's girl. As the days went by and turned into weeks, I still continued to mourn and be very depressed. Then in September, my sister's son, Skylar, was in a bad automobile accident and almost died. Skylar and I have always been very close. He stayed with us alot when he was growing up. He broke his neck in three places and severed his spinal cord. He stopped breathing twice before he was airlifted to the hospital. The following day after his surgery we were told that he had a 50% chance of surviving. If he survived, the doctor said that while he would never walk or move his arms or hands, it was also possible that he would never breath, talk or eat on his own again. They were actually encouraging my sister to remove him from life support. A few days later Skylar came down with pneumonia and the bacteria that causes meningitis. All we could do was turn to God and pray for help and guidance. Two weeks after his accident Skylar was well enough to be transferred to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia. My sister stayed there with him and my husband and I and our children went almost every weekend to see him. A few days before Thanksgiving, Skylar had been weaned off the ventilator and was able to breath on his own. On Thanksgiving Day I made dinner for everyone and we carried it to Atlanta so we could all be together. The hospital allowed everyone to use the cafeteria and we shared our dinner with another patient and her family. There was 19 of us. When we bowed our heads that day for prayer, we had many things to be thankful for despite all we had been through. While losing our dad really hurt, we were thankful that he died peacefully in his sleep, at home and in his own bed. We was also thankful that Skylar was alive and breathing on his own, he could also talk and eat. Another thing we were thankful for was all the support we received during this time. Not only were we blessed with wonderful friends but there were many people who donated money and prayed for Skylar and our family that did not know any of us. To see God working through both friends and strangers was very comforting to our family and we were truly thankful. As a result of going through all this I feel like I am a stronger person both spiritually and emotionally and I am thankful for that as well.