We just recently celebrated our daughters Ashlyn’s 5th birthday. She didn’t want a cake… she wanted Dunkin Donut holes?! So there you go. As we rush towards this Thanks giving weekend… I find myself reflecting on and thankful for what has been a most challenging and wonderful year. I am sure most of us have had times in our lives that didn’t go like we hoped, we planned or even as we prayed they would. Instead they somehow were worse than we wanted …and better than we expected at the same time.
Our bitter sweet year included our Ashlyn spending an unwelcomed and unwanted month in ICU fighting for her life… and us praying for it. But we did not pray alone. Literally thousands of friends, and strangers, prayed with us and for us. And our little Ashlyn miraculously pulled through. Our family felt the undeniable lift of this outpouring of love, faith and friendship. The bitter was lost in the sweet….and we promised ourselves we would never forget what we had received. And each day as we look at our Ashlyn we continue to see a miracle. Nearly every day since then has been like the day we came home from the hospital. As a result of this unwanted experience our family lives in a better place and we have become a better family.
Every family activity, every picture we take..it’s like we all know how blessed we are to have her in it…and how heart breaking it would be if she was not. We find ourselves praying much more fervently and feeling much more empathy for the many around us have lost family members and those close to them. This awareness and thoughtfulness of others reinforces and magnifies our gratefulness.
It is said that ” It is wise to be grateful… for those that are grateful are humble and those that are humble are grateful.
Something else I am very grateful for. A few of my close friends (Motivational Speaker Types), knowing that our family did not have medical insurance, and that a month in ICU can be pricey began planning a 2nd miracle for our family so that our family wouldn’t be selling our home to pay off our medical bills.
I have put off sharing this here for nearly 3 months now because I felt a bit awkward about it …for obvious reasons. But I have, with encouragement, come to the conclusion that to not share this with you would not honor my friends who organized and donated their time to create it.
I hope that none of you are offended by it, or feel obligated to participate in any way.
It’s a website called http://www.miraclesforashlyn.com/ Each of them recorded a 10-15 minute video sharing their personal strategies & thoughts on what motivators do to stay motivated…when times are hard and stress is high. There is also a downloadable workbook. They wanted to create something of real value so that people who chose to make a donation would receive so much more than a good feeling.
I suspect most of you know Ashlyn’s story…but for the few of you who do not and who might like to know. Most of the blog entries are posted at http://humanbecomings.wordpress.com/
Thank you my friends…and have most glorious and grateful Thanksgiving.
Kirk & Family
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