Happy Thanksgiving to everyone this beautiful, fall, crisp morning. As I sit here and think about all the things that I have to be thankful for, nothing hits home quite as hard as where my family and I were this time last year. I know for a lot of us these past two years have brought a lot of uncertainty, changes that we never imagined, and stress and strain that we could have, would have, gladly gone without. For us it wasn't Covid that necessarily challenged us as much as family circumstances. For November last year saw my husband out of work due to a very harsh flare up of arthritis. A marine, a farmer, a husband, a farther, nothing felled this guy much of the time, but this had him unable to even walk from the bathroom to the bedroom. This turned our world on its axis. You see Dan wasn't hurt at work, he still had a job to show up to each day as he is a mailman, and well we all know the mail must be delivered no matter what! So here we were a single family income of six, now staring down the barrel of no income for an uncertain amount of time.
Nothing the Drs. did to try to help seemed to do anything. You see I say all of this to set the scene for where we were at, my husband physically, me mentally and emotionally as I watched my husband go through this and tried to hold down the farm and the family.
But our story doesn't end there. You see our story is intertwined with His story. We are a family of faith, we love the Lord Jesus with all of our hearts and as the circumstances around us tried to swallow us up, leaving us to feel overwhelmed, discouraged and, at times for myself, fearful of the future, the only way forward was to lean on the Lord. Most days I would begin my day reading Matthew 6v25-34, about not worrying. Do you know this chapter became very real for us. You see the bills don't stop, our family still needs to eat, the animals still need to be fed, whether there is money coming in or not. Yet, all I can say is how Thankful I am this Thanksgiving Day. Dan was out of work for about 5-6 months and by the grace of God we never missed a bill, we had food on the table. My children got to see first hand the wonderful love and provision of a Father in Heaven who loves us beyond measure. The Lord provided in ways we never expected, through the love and generosity of some people we know and some whom remained anonymous.
This Thanksgiving Day I have a lot to be thankful for. Dan is still not out of the woods yet, although he continues to work through the pain, but we are very thankful for the wonderful things we experienced through a not so wonderful time.
Yes, there will always be challenges, some big and some small, but I'm thankful that I don't have to walk them alone.
I hope this post finds you well this Thanksgiving morning and that there is something no matter how small to be thankful for.
Love and blessings on this day.
Annabel