Thanksgiving is probably one of my favorite holidays. It’s a time to get together with family. A time to reflect on the past year and think about the things you are thankful for. Maybe watch some football. And my favorite part? The food! You probably couldn’t tell by looking at me that I love to eat. I am one of the fortunate ones that was blessed with a fast metabolism. At least I was. As I have gotten older my metabolism has slowed down a bit so I’ve been a little more conscious of what I eat, but Thanksgiving will always be the one day a year that I eat until I feel like I’m going to split my pants. Christmas comes in a close second.
Last Thanksgiving (2008) was a very hard and emotional Thanksgiving for Stacy and I. We had lost Jackson just 10 days before. Trying to be thankful when your first child passed away before he was born was a struggle. Of course, we were thankful for our health, and the health of parents and siblings. But the pain, the anger, the helplessness, the emptiness, and the depression of losing Jackson were still overwhelming.
Fast forward a year and we were blessed with James. We had so much to be thankful for this year. We hadn’t forgotten about Jackson, and we never will. He will always be considered our first child, but having James made Thanksgiving 2009 a little more bearable. Sure, James was disabled and required around-the-clock care, but he was ours. He made us a family.
When Stacy and I got married, we went through all of the major holidays and figured out which holiday would be spent with which side of the family. Thanksgiving was spent with her side of the family so we packed up our little car and headed off to her parents. Thanksgiving itself was pretty uneventful. Lots of good food, football, family. Just a typical Thanksgiving. And of course, I ate too much! I didn’t split my pants, but I had to undo my belt a notch.
James is still new to us and we’re still trying to figure him out. He’s kind of like a puzzle with missing pieces. He has neurological impairments so we’re not sure what he understands. He has vision issues with an optic nerve that wasn’t fully developed so we are not sure what he sees. He might have hearing issues so we are not sure what he hears. None of this is going to stop us from trying to give him all of the life experiences we can. We’re not sure if he enjoyed his first Thanksgiving or not. We didn’t hear any complaints, so I guess that’s a good sign. To be fair though, James isn’t much of a complainer. He doesn’t cry much, which we think is a result of his neurological issues.
For some reason we didn’t take many pictures of his first Thanksgiving, but here he is trying to nap at Nana and Papa’s (Stacy’s parents):
