Family...(Day 4)

Saturday, January 21, 2012

After having a day filled with laughter and smiles it occurred to me that family is the best thing in the world. I could go on and on about the family that we have, but I know not everyone wants to read that much tonight... Now, when I say family, I don't mean only those who are blood related. I am referring to all of those who are here when we need them to be the most.

Today I knew was going to be a sad day for me. Bob and Dave drove from Manchester to our house in Allegan to pick up our horses and take them for a while to help me out with chores. It is a blessing that we have people willing to do this for us. It is also extremely helpful that I can spend more of my time and energy focused on Carl and ensuring that I am here for him, and his battle. But, I feel like my children were packed up and sent on their way. I know they are coming back and they are just going on a small vacation, and they are going to a wonderful place, but there were some tears falling from my eyes this afternoon!

Meanwhile, as I was clearing the tears from my eyes at our house, Carl was surrounded by happy thoughts at the hospital. He had so many people come out to support him. His dad was the first person out this morning. Shortly after that Pam and his step sister Justine came over. His Aunt Marlene, Aunt Sue, and Grandma Porter then strolled through the door. In the afternoon some people from his work stopped by...Herman, Sylvia, Erica, Wendy(and her daughter Bella), Martin (and his family). It was nice to see everyone. After the rush from work, Carl's other step sister Chealsea and her boyfriend Kyle came over along with his Aunt Kris, Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Kevin... Cory and Chad also were able to make it up here as well. (If you lost count that brings the finial head count to 23 counting Carl and I!) Phew.. That was a busy day!

Carl was able to stay off of the IV's for the majority of the day again so long as he drank plenty of fluids. The Dr. reminded him that boring was good, and told him that he can explore other floors around the building if he wanted to... including stepping outside for a quick second to enjoy the snow. (Carl is VERY sad that it keeps snowing when he is sick because he has not been able to enjoy this weather once this winter...)

I have always known we need family in our lives, but after hours laughing so hard that as I am sitting in the chair typing tonight, my abs HURT, I can not imagine things with out the great support system we have! We need family for many reasons; We need people who are there to look out for us all the time. We need people who will love us no matter what. We need people who will stand by our sides and back us up even when we make stupid decisions. You don't have to be blood related to be called family... Carl and I both have a HUGE family that are blood related, but if you listen to us talk about our friends its always someone that we say are like a grandparent to us, or a second mom/dad. Or that a friend is like a brother to us. We consider you all our family, and we are blessed with such a large caring group of people.

Thank you to all of our family who are there to support us. (including those who are not blood related, we love you just the same!)