Holidays for my family, particularly Thanksgiving and Christmas the last few years have been very rough on my family. My niece was born 4 years ago 1 day before Thanksgiving with the valves crossed going to her heart. She had to undergo open heart surgery. She was in the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital for a month in Nashville Tenn. The doctors realized there wasn’t anything that could be done and on Christmas Eve the same year my brother and his wife had to take her off of life support. If that wasn’t enough, last year on Thanksgiving day my grandmother died in Hospice due to a brain injury she had from a fall in the local hospital.
This was the first year my entire family was in town at my parents for Thanksgiving. We started a new tradition. As cheesy as it sounds, we all went around the room and said what we were thankful for. My nephew said his family and his new classmate Cole. My brothers said their family and God. My niece said her family’s unconditional love. It came my turn and I has a lump n my throat. You see, I have been going through recovery and have realized that I have been angry with my family for not being perfect. I expected a perfect upbringing with perfect members. I realize now that nobody gets the perfect home life. I have come to a place of acceptance and realization that my family members are only human just as I am. I felt the urge to tell my entire family in that circle that I was thankful for them and that I was sorry for being a jerk and expecting perfection. It was liberating. I am thankful for my family and love them where they are just as they love me where I am. Thank God for revaltion!
