Thankful

Today was a big day for my family. My father-in-law had his defibrillator/pacemaker in his heart recalled by the company who made it. So today he had the procedure done to remove the old one in his heart and insert a new one. This was a fairly risky procedure since the lead in his heart could have had built up scar tissue around it and there was a chance to rip some tissue and the effect be a hole in his heart. Actually there were a lot of possible dangers the surgery posed, but thank God everything turned out o.k. God is so good.

And it makes me think of how nice it is to know one can count on their family. Both of my sisters-in-law flew out from different states to be here (one is pregnant! I'm so excited to have a little niece soon). Jeremy took off of work, and I got to be out during the surgery. Yesterday we all had dinner together and Jeremy's aunt and uncle were there too as well as the grandparents. All of us wanted to show him support and wish him well. I think of how important that is. If one day I'm in the hospital, I know I'll love having my family there to show me they love me. I've been in many hospital rooms and I've seen a lot of lonely folks with no visitors. And I think of how lucky our family has been... Recently my grandfather Pepin had a heart procedure done too. All of his sons & daughters drove up from Fort Lauderdale and here- even Maryland, and we all drove up together to Tampa. There were cousins and in-laws, brothers, sisters, and grandchildren. It's kinda funny, because when they would call our name, our whole family would stand up. The nurses said they've never seen so many people waiting for one patient! That meant the world to my grandfather, and when we left the hospital together as family.. what a nice feeling it was.

Usually you can tell you're loved during the hardest and toughest times in your life. Who sticks around... who sends you letters... who e-mails... who calls you... and also- who sticks around even when you don't respond or write or call them back. Who understands that you're down and knows you'll come around. That's true family. We can pick our friends, but we can't pick our family. So when you didn't pick'em but even with our quirks and idiosyncrasies we'd pick them anyway- wow! What a blessing!

Thank you Lord for giving me-us- such a great family. From our blood family to our in-laws we've been so blessed with amazing people who love us and love You. Thank you for this earthly family that we love so much and for making our time on earth a little more enjoyable and abundant! We are ,indeed, very rich!