Count Your Blessings

One small beep at 4:00 am on Sunday morning November 15, 2009 caused a dramatic shift in our priorities at the Gateway News. The text message said that our dear Yukiko had suffered a seizure and had been taken by ambulance to the hospital. Phone calls were quickly made to all family members and we waited for results of the CAT scan. The next beep said simply, come to the hospital now.

In the car leaving Reunion in the blizzard I had it all figured out. Dustie, my son, had jumped in the ambulance with Yuki, so they needed a ride home. The doctor must have prescribed some medication for Yuki and I was thinking where the closest 24 hour pharmacy would be.

Perception collided with reality when I arrived in the ER and looked into Dustie’s eyes. We were not there to give them a ride home and home was not where we would be anymore for a long time. Yuki had suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm and all of a sudden the priority was to save Yuki’s life and we were being told about surgery, long weeks in the ICU and months of recovery.

The priority became praying and to call as many of our friends as we could think of to pray and ask for a miracle. God has answered many of our prayers and miracles keep happening every day. We probably won’t cook a turkey on Thursday but we will all be praying by Yuki’s bedside in the ICU together as a family as we are all here together, including Yuki’s family from Japan.

This Thanksgiving as you gather with your loved ones, don’t worry so much about the lumpiness of the gravy or how clean the house is. Stop and pray together and be very thankful for the moments you have with each other. Yuki is only 33 years old and has been a blessing in our lives for 13 years. I wish I had not spent so much time on the things that seem so very trivial now. If it won’t matter ten years down the road, then it doesn’t matter. If it will, it should be our priority now. Really truly count your blessings and set your priorities straight. A single beep and a text message can change everything forever.

We want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has so very graciously stepped up and helped us in so many ways. You know who you are and you are truly blessings in our lives. We are thankful for all of you and for God’s miracles.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to everyone.