Thankfulness - Valentine's Day

One year ago, my husband had been unable to work since December 27, and we were on short-term disability play.  He could not walk into the kitchen and grab his own snack and making a meal was out of the question. He required oxygen to sleep and even then he slept very poorly. We had doctor appointments every week, but no one could figure out what was wrong. [His previous cardiologist told everyone it wasn't his heart.] Valentine's Day 2012 is remembered for being rough. Basically we were able to celebrate with mac & cheese made with heart shape pasta and which my husband could eat very little of.

One year later, this year, finds vast changes. He hasn't slept with oxygen since we first visited OHSU and got admitted for 2 weeks. This past Tuesday, DH and I walked for 45 minutes straight. He has been able to work 20-24 hours/week for 3 months now.  Today he's going for another scheduled biopsy of his new heart and then we're going out as a family to have dinner and see Wreck It Ralph.

Thank you, God, for the mind boggling changes You have wrought in my world, in my husband's world. Thank you for the health he lives in and the health he's building on. Thank you for getting us through the past 14+ months. Thank you for being there and holding me when I hardly knew the next thing to do much less what was for dinner. Thank you for helping me care for my husband and my children through that period. Thank you for the hope for the future my husband now has. Thank you using that period to knit us closer together as a family, for working all things together for good. Thank you for teaching me years ago to live on a shoe string; I am so very thankful I didn't need to learn to do that this past year. Thank you for providing for all our financial needs one way or another. Thank you for all the family and friends who held us up in prayer and continue to hold us up. Thank you that I didn't always need to find words to cry out to You for help because there were many days I couldn't find words. Thank you for helping DH and I rebuild our relationship on health instead of the sickness it's been built on for 10 years.