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Joselita · 07-30-2007, 08:56 AM

Ada,
What a nice thought, to start a thread like this! Thank you.

I have many things that I am grateful for. First and foremost, I am grateful and thankful that I have my kids. I don’t know what I did in this life to deserve them...but whatever it is, I am glad. Together, we have beaten so very many odds. You see, I was only 17 when I got PG with Meghan. I had her at 18, and Jay at 20. I wound up divorced when I was 22, after 5 years of living in a marriage from Hell. You name it, it went on between my husband and I. Not a place for me, and especially not a place for my kids....so I left.

According to statistics, Meghan should have dropped out of High school and already be a momma herself. Jay should have also dropped out, and probably have fathered a few kids by now. They both should have had HUGE discipline and behavioral problems. At least Jay should have already had a criminal record of some sort by now. They should both have some sort of addiction problem...and especially have a problem with alcohol (since their father is an alcoholic himself). This is what you hear “everyone” say kids from a broken home, with a teenage mother and alcoholic father that doesn’t have much to do with them..right? If you add in that I have stayed single, and I wound up disabled on top of that....with drugs in the house that the kids know about....well....that just kinda nails the whole thing shut for them and their future. At least according to the “experts” out there.

But, some how....for reasons I don’t know....I was blessed with two of the best and most wonderful children on the face of the earth. Neither one of my kids EVER had any disciplinary problems at all. They sure haven’t run afoul of the law. They don’t do drugs...and they don’t drink. Both have graduated High School. Meghan has gone on to the Community College here in town to take classes for her Cosmetology Certificate, and has been on the Dean’s List the whole time she has been there (3 semesters so far)! She is engaged to be married next year (she is shooting for June) to the boy she has been dating since she was in the 10th grade. Jay has gotten accepted to a Private School, for which the competition to get in is SUPER high. He has set his sights on being a pilot and getting his Aerospace Science degree, with at least to other minors (with a possible 3rd...as he wants to learn German, and is considering a minor in that). Meghan hasn’t wound up pg, and Jay hasn’t gotten anyone that way.

Somehow, we have beaten the odds not once, but twice! Like I said, I am thankful and grateful for my kids, and for the young adults that they have turned out to be.

I am thankful for my family. Without them, I don’t know where the kids and I would have been, or what we would have done. Especially for that almost 2 year period when I was fighting for my SSD. I am thankful and grateful for my parents, and that we were able to overcome some HUGE obstacles in our past (I was disowned when I got pg and married). I am thankful that we were able to all come together...and be closer than we ever were before. I am thankful that happened BEFORE I wound up with RSD, and I am grateful that we have only become closer since RSD.

I am more thankful and grateful then I can say for my brother. I thank God each and every day that he is at a better place in his life, and that I am able to call him up and talk to him. That I get to see him in person is a gift beyond any thanks I can think of. For so long, I thought that the next time that I would see him wound be at his funeral. Thank God that is not the case anymore.....and that I just heard from Greg last night. That wouldn’t have been possible only a few years ago.

I am thankful for my friends. I am thankful that the people that I thought were my friends are not around anymore....and I am thankful for the true friends that have stuck by my side through all of these years. Some of those friends are folks from the Forums. Some that I have known from the very first time that I ever got on line to look up and then chat about RSD. I am thankful for all of them, because they pulled me through MANY sleepless nights, and some of my deepest darkest depressions. Without them...without the old BT board (LOL, and the one before that, and the one before that! LOL) and this place (and ICQ when we were all chatting on that), I don’t think that I would be here today. There were times that the thing that helped me the most was being able to log on, and either go to the ICQ thing to chat, or to the old BT chatroom to chat. We would have a BALL in there, and it would always lift my spirits. That also happened when I was able to join in supporting a new person too. To have a place that I could go, to get support, to have a shoulder when I needed one, or to get a laugh when I needed one (even if I didn’t think I did), was a huge gift to me. It still is, even though there have been so many changes.

I am thankful for the folks that take the time to read my long posts. Thankful when something that I say can help someone in some way (if they have been able to read it), and thankful just to know that there are folks out there that care.

In some ways, as crazy as it might sound, I am thankful for RSD. The reason for that is because I have learned many lessons since RSD came to live with me. Lessons that I might not have learned, not learned as well, or maybe would have taken much longer to learn, if it weren’t for RSD FORCING me to learn them. Maybe, it was God’s way of getting my attention....and getting through my very stubborn hard head that I needed to learn these things. That I needed to learn to be more Patient; that I needed to learn how to Accept things that can’t be changed, and how to work with (or around) them as best I can; that I needed to learn to be more Empathic then I was before, even though I thought that I had a lot of empathy for others. I have MORE now. I needed to learn to have more Tolerance in all kinds of ways. To tolerate yucky things that I couldn’t change or avoid, to tolerate uncomfortable and painful situations and not loose my temper (I have a very bad temper), and to tolerate other folks that are not having good times, and that lash out at others in their pain and panic. All of those things are things that RSD has kinda sorta forced me to learn. SO, I am thankful for that.

I am thankful that I can wake up each and every day. I am thankful that I still have my mobility. I am thankful for each and every second that I have been able to share with my children....and with other folks that I care about. I am thankful for my furry babies too, as they offer their own types of comfort and support....and force me to do things on days that I don’t want to get out of bed.

I am thankful too, that I have so much to be thankful for! Thanks again, Ada, for starting this thread! I hope that more folks join in and add what they are thankful and grateful for.

Love and

Jose