Thankful for the trials

On Monday my four year old came home from preschool with a perfect Thanksgiving prop. An Indian inspired headband made of colorful construction paper feathers stapled to a thick brown strip of paper sat on his head. Three of the feathers were were adorned with black sharpie marker. Words obviously written by his teacher's hand communicated what Asher was thankful for. The feathers read:

"I am thankful for my baby brother."
"I am thankful for my baby brother's toys."
"I am thankful when my mom makes my baby brother stop hitting me."

(apparently he had his 2 year old brother, Beckett, on the brain that day.)

Cute. I smiled and chuckled at the innocence of his childhood and started to think about what I would write on those feathers.

I quickly thought of many things I am thankful for; my family, my home, my friends, and my health. General categories that most of us could write on construction paper feathers. Then I thought a little deeper.

This past week I also learned of four more people who have lost their jobs, a friend who ended up at Primary Children's hospital with her 1 year old, another friend who was attending a funeral of a young mother who'd died of cancer, and one more friend with unexplained health problems leaving her almost unable to walk.

So many different trials that so many of us face. I believe that all of us are given the trials that WE can handle. At times it seems so hard to find something to be thankful for when we are experiencing them, but as we struggle through them, they turn out to be events that bless our lives in other ways. My Asher has helped me realize this blessing more than anyone.

When I was 36 weeks pregnant with him, I went in for my regularly scheduled appointment. While there, the doctor said my baby's heart was beating too fast and told me I would need to deliver that day. Diagnosed with a heart condition called Super Ventricular Tachycardia (SVT) my premature infant was taken to Primary Children's hospital while I sat alone in a hospital room miles away.

The next few days were full of NICU visits, monitors, alarms, medication and diagnoses. In the NICU there are 6 patients to a room where mothers can sit by their sick babies and nurses work hard to help them. The baby next to Asher laid in a medication induced coma while scars from recent surgeries healed on him. Watching that baby I whispered to Sonny, "Wow, we are lucky Asher has the problems he has. That poor family."

After a week of seeing the other mothers every day, the mother of that baby in the next bed said to me, "The first night when your baby came in it was so scary. His monitors kept going off, his little heart beat was going crazy- I was so glad that wasn't happening to my baby." She had the same thoughts about our family's trial as I did about hers. It was a moment that helped me believe that the trials we have are given to us because WE can handle them.

So, as I finish out this Thanksgiving week, I am going to write on my feather- "I am thankful for my trials." I now have a happy, imaginative four year old that reminds me every day how trials have blessed my life. I hope that you will add this feather to your Thanksgiving headband too.