Well, our holiday of stuffing our faces is tomorrow. Tomorrow we will all, more than likely, feed on a table full of food and snacks until we eventually pass out in front of the TV. As we do this with our family and friends, it's important to remember why we are all together...to give thanks.
Being thankful for all of the good things in life is real easy to do and easy to remember. Most people are thankful for their families, health, and so on. I am thankful for all of these as well. But as I think about Thanksgiving and giving thanks, I can't help but remember the events that have happened in our lives that eventually led us to the people we are today.
I have been Diabetic for as long as Heather has known me. Diabetes was just something I had and dealt, or didn't deal with, on a day-to-day basis. A month after Heather and I were married, she was sitting at my bedside in the Intensive Care Unit as I battled through complications with my diabetes. I can't imagine what it was like for her to sit by my bedside, especially a month after we vowed to be together forever. In that moment, our relationship grew stronger.
Our first child, Dylanne was born. She required a minor surgery months later to cut open an opening that females are suppose to have. It was a minor surgery, but scary for us because it was our only child under the knife. We worried in the waiting room until we heard from the doctor that everything was successful and that Dylanne would be fine from here on out. We worried, but our relationship with each other and Dylanne grew stronger.
Our second child, Micheala was born. We noticed that she would stop breathing while she slept; sometimes turning blue. We were frustrated and stressed as we traveled from hospital to hospital looking for answers. Finaly a Chiari Malformationi of the Brain diagnosis at the University of Iowa hospital. She required decompression surgery on our wedding anniversary. We sat in the hospital waiting room on a day in which we were suppose to celebrate, but felt nothing but anxiety. Micheala made it through surgery and our road to recovery began. We grew stronger as a family.
Heather went through thyroid cancer, in which she did treatments and had her thyroid removed. I watched and worried while my wife battled this day-to-day. She is cancer free as of now and feels better than ever. I was worried because throughout this process, I witnessed my wife's spirit disappear. We grew stronger as a family.
Heather was the first to arrive on the scene of her mother's apartment fire. She witnessed the firemen trying to revive her mother on the lawn in front of her apartment. At the hospital we were face with the difficult decision to let her be with God. It is still tough to this date, but we are working through it. We grew stronger as a family.
on Mother's Day 2009, Micheala was diagnosed with diabetes. A day in which I thought my life could not get any worse. A disease she got from me and would have to battle the rest of her life. I still struggle with the fact that she is now a diabetic and the everyday care that Heather and I have to give her becomes stressful at times. We grew stronger as a family.
So these are a few of the events that have happened in our lives since we've been married and started our own family. We went through a period of asking God, "Why us?". We lost faith and didn't feel as if we had much to be excited about or live for anymore.
Our lives are different now.
We look back at all of these things and realize that we have conquered them all. We have not only managed to get through all of these things, but we have grow as a family because of them.
So this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for all of the misfortunes that we've gone through in our life. I am thankful for those misfortunes because they have made us a stronger family, more confident and happier. These misfortunes have turned into fortunes for us. So, I thank God for challenging the Schrock family. I thank the Lord for being our sheppard. I thank those who didn't feel sorrow for us during these times and encourgaed us to push forward. I thank those who believed in us when we didn't believe in us. Finally, I thank those who choose to stand beside us, achieve with us, believe with us and better their own lives through us.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
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