Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Count Them One By One

This year has been hard. It started out wonderfully with a 9lb. 7oz. healthy baby girl and then...

five weeks later I ended up in the hospital for emergency gallbladder surgery and then...




ten weeks later I was rear ended in our new-to-us minivan by a full sized pickup truck pulling a fifth wheel and then...



one week later Nathan punctured his head on a machine at work and had to have four staples...


Maybe it's just me (I hope not) but I started to get discouraged and was having a hard time seeing that good things were happening to us. So, I wanted to list a few things that have come to mind lately.

We were given money to help us pay for the medical bills from Amelia's birth and my surgery which, despite great insurance coverage, were many.

Nathan got a Safeway gift card from work (he works for the Milk Plant). Most of the employees got $60 but for some reason Nathan got $80. And it came right when we desperately needed diapers for the girls. So I was able to get two boxes of diapers for each girl and a box of wipes and I didn't have to pay for it.

My sister-in-law got too much milk from WIC this month and gave us three gallons the day I was going shopping. Plus she gave us 4 lbs of raisins which they kids love and I needed to get them.

Sunday I was given more clothes for my girls and there were quite a few summer shirts that would fit Hazel and that's the one thing I needed for her.

We found a van!!!!! I love our new van and am so happy to finally be done with that part of accident recovery. It is a beautiful silvery blue, has stow-n-go seating, AIR CONDITIONING, automatic sliding doors and rear door and many other things we were wanting including an affordable price.



Also, we haven't been back to the ER since June.

You know in all of these situations there were "bright sides" so to speak. My gallbladder infection could have been much worse. I was jaundice for a few days (which is how we discovered the problem) and could have had liver damage but I didn't. I had to have two surgeries. One to remove stray gallstones and another to remove my gallbladder which was filled with over 100 gallstones. I recovered fast and feel great.

When I was rear ended I was by myself. My sweet babies were at home safe in their warm beds and my wonderful husband was here with them. I wasn't seriously injured. I have some whiplash and other aches and pains but I'm alive and I have all my limbs.

When Nathan punctured his head he didn't have to quit working. He got four staples and other than a headache he was fine.

It has been important for me to think through these things and list the good things because most of the time the negative takes over and it is hard to see through the fog it creates.

1 comment:

LaFonda Dunlap said...

Isn't funny that we have to take the time to count how many blessings we have in our lives, and we don't have to work at all to keep track of the difficult things. God doesent waist anything. Thanks for reminding me to take time to count. Love mom