Hello faithful family, friends, and followers. We pray that you had a special Thanksgiving and we thank you for taking the time to join us here for our Black Friday update and you don’t even need a discount code to read it 😊. We had a very special day yesterday which I will share more about in a moment, but I think one of our dearest friends summed it up best when he said, “Boy, do we have things to be thankful for!”
First, I want to let you all know that Joy has written a wonderful new post and so I encourage you to take the time to view it here and since my post last week was rather long, I will do my best to be brief.
We enjoyed a week of extra time with our grandsons and then yesterday, had a very special Thanksgiving Day trip to Iowa to visit with Joy’s 97 y/o mother, her brother, and sister-in-law. When the accident happened we really didn’t think that Joy and Ruth would see each other again this side of heaven. Yet, they have had the wonderful opportunity to share each other’s company on multiple occasions including yesterday. It is one of the many things we are most thankful for this Thanksgiving/Christmas season.
But where do we even begin to express our thankfulness and gratitude to God and all of you who have prayed for us so faithfully. Wednesday marked the 9 month anniversary of our life changing dramatically and we live daily in awe of God’s grace shown to us since the 27th of February. We could still be in Florida in a long-term-care facility had God not provided the miracles, and Joy the grit and determination, to claw her way to health and recovery. And, we were also so blessed by all of you and the gracious gifts that allowed us to fly home to Minnesota. But, I remember so vividly as we left Florida, the very real question, could Joy handle the rigors of the Courage Kenny Inpatient Rehabilitation Program we were going to. If she wasn’t up to the required hours of therapy per day, there was only one other option, long-term care with a high cost and uncertain future. But Joy proved not only up to the therapy demands, but excelled. I cannot find words to express how hard Joy worked, which resulted in her ability to not only complete her inpatient treatment, but then allowed us to return home and continue out-patent rehabilitation from there.
I quote Henri Nouwen a lot, but in desiring to find words to express the spirit of joy, thanksgiving, and gratitude we feel, I turn to him once again and share the following:
“Gratitude…goes beyond the “mine” and “thine” and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.
Gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice. I can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are still steeped in hurt and resentment. It is amazing how many occasions present themselves in which I can choose gratitude instead of a complaint. . . The choice for gratitude rarely comes without some real effort. But each time I make it, the next choice is a little easier, a little freer, a little less self-conscious. . . There is an Estonian proverb that says: “Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.” Acts of gratitude make one grateful because, step by step, they reveal that all is grace.” (Henri Nouwen).
Again, again, and again, we thank you for your faithful support, prayers, and encouragement. We hold you in our hearts and prayers and pray that you will continue to hold up Joy for continued healing, health, and restoration in this journey of grace and gratitude we are on.
