Counting our Blessings

 As Thanksgiving 2020 rolls to a close I have had plenty of time to reflect today. I have thought about the good and bad that has come this year. I have thought about the hurt and sorrow, mixed with the joy. Our family had to say goodbye to Millie. We got to welcome a new grandson. Our hearts have ached, broken with grief, but in the same time been bursting with JOY.

Our Family has been sick this last week so we chose to spend the day quietly with just our household. Daddy and Katherine cooked Shepard’s Pie, Mac and Cheese, and hot dog rollups. We had no traditional Thanksgiving Day foods. After I ate, I had to take a nap. The kind where the Lord and I talked as I held Monkey and washed my face in tears.

We spent the afternoon watching Little House on the Prairie and then the Home Alone movies. The family curled up on the couch just being together. Tonight, the girls are baking pies...just because. I heard tale of an apple, cherry, and pumpkin all from scratch. I’ve gotten to visit with a few of my ‘cancer mom’ friends via messenger or text. Each are missing their little ones as much as we miss Millie. For some this is the first year, like us. For others, they have a few years behind them of Thanksgivings without their child. I think either way, the wound feels just as fresh. You never get past that empty spot. You always think about the one not here. From deep sorrow to just a mist of sadness, the intensity may fade some, but it will linger forever.

I hope as you met today that you have a deep gratitude for those around your table. I hope the petty irritations faded away and that genuine happiness flooded your home and those that were there. I hope you remembered to “Praise God from whom all blessings flow”.

Please hold my friend Katie up in prayer. Her son will soon join Millie in heaven. Her heart will be broken just as so many of our hearts are. She knows he will be healed, happy, and finally pain free. She also knows she will be filled with pain from grief.

Children and cancer, children and sickness, children and death just do not seem like words that should be said together. Thankful I know the final chapter of the story...