30 Days of Thankfulness: Tag fünf

Today, I am thankful for good health. For the most part, my sweet little family has been healthy. There have been some infected ears, an occasional bout of strep throat, one year of antibiotics for a urinary tract issue (thankfully outgrown), one UTI, and a host of colds. We had one surgery. Dino was born with two of his fingers joined and when he was 16 months old he had surgery to separate them. So, on the whole, healthy children and family.

But I have been down the road of unwellness. One of my step-brothers had some serious kidney issues as a child. He eventually went into kidney failure at 13 (I was 12) and was hospitalized. I can remember the day I found out. I was in 7th grade and finally at middle school. We got to change classes and all. :-) And in the afternoon, I got a message to go to the office because I was being picked up early. I tried to figure out what was going on but could not imagine. When I got to the office, my mom was waiting. She took me to the car where my step-dad and two of my brothers were waiting. We went straight out of town to the nearby children's hospital. For the next several months, that journey became very familiar.

My brother was in kidney failure. He spent quite some time in and out of the hospital. I cannot begin to give an accurate timeline. It is mostly jumbled up in my head. But the main points are that his kidney's were in such bad shape they had to be removed. Brother went on dialysis for some time until eventually he had a kidney transplant. My older step-brother was a perfect match. He had just become old enough that he was allowed to decide to be a donor. Praise God.

Since then, brother has had a few minor issues health wise, but he's had his new kidney for over 25 years now and doing well.

So, while we occasionally have some things that we have to deal with, on the whole, we have been blessed with health. And I am so very thankful for that.