What are we thankful for?

This is Joel; I’ve decided to hijack my page tonight!

I ask this question: what does Thanksgiving mean to you? Family, food & football?

For many years I easily claimed those three things. 

This year it’s something different. 

I’d like to begin by thanking all of you for your interest in following along with our journey; the prayers, phone calls, text messages, cards & letters, and kind words said in person. I say “our journey” because it involved the whole family. 

 I want to name some individuals personally. Starting with my dad, Jim, who is supposed to be retired this year. Thanks for never missing a beat, showing the grandsons what to do and how to do it. 

Next comes by brother, Jay. It was unbelievable how you took on the extra workload and the stress that comes with the harvest season. Never once did you complain, always making sure I was okay and asking what else you could do to make my recovery easier. I could not ask for a closer brother and wonderful business partner. 

I am so thankful for my son Carter, my nephews Luke and Adam, my uncle Rich, my brother-in-law Joel, our neighbors and business associates, and so many others who offered. We appreciate all of your help. 

And to our adult kids: Ashtyn & Chase, thank you for opening your home to us for a pit stop on our way home from the hospital; Jaylen and Josh for visiting us after we got home with the best news that our first grandchild would be joining our family in March! We are so grateful for all of you.

Finally I saved the best for last; my wife, Karmell. Without you being by my side I don’t know what this journey would have been like. 

I look back to the morning of my surgery. As we cried whiling praying for all to go well, you said it was up to us to make a POSITIVE impact on others no matter what the results showed. We survived the scare of cancer that my doctors had prepared us for. Your willingness to spend the first 3 weeks at home sleeping on the couch next to me, administering the IV’s every 6 hours, giving me my shots and being the biggest cheerleader I could ever have.  

One night I began thinking of the wedding vows that Karmell and I shared; “for richer, for poorer”. These words have wrongfully been at the front of my mind, and the phrase “in sickness and in health” ring clearer to me now. All the money in the world cannot buy health or happiness. While in the hospital, one of my doctors said that without a POSITIVE attitude, my ability to leave that facility on my own two feet wasn’t certain. A wake-up call that I needed to hear and think of often. 

And an important health update: I had the last drain removed on 11/9. What a great feeling it is to be drain free! 

Next up will be infusion treatments; medicine through IV to fight off my liver being attacked again. 

So tonight I ask, what are YOU thankful for? And could all of us, by having a POSITIVE attitude, impact the people we meet? Yes, and we have experienced this first hand! As we finish out 2020, please consider how you can make a POSITIVE impact in someone’s life.