A Night of Thanksgiving

For the month of November, our family is creating a Thankful Tree. Everyday, we each write down something that we are thankful for. I'm hoping this project will help each of us develop an attitude of gratefulness. I chose to do a tree with leaves because the leaves will multiply quickly and I want Jackson (well, all of us really) to see how many things we have to be thankful for. I want us to see the abundance of our blessings.

Normally, whenever we sit down to write down our many thanks (we've done stuff like this before), Jackson lists off all of his material possessions. While I think it is wonderful that he's thankful for his bike, scooter, comfy pants, train set, electronic train, backpack, light saber, light-up toothbrush..., I would love to hear him mention people or events or circumstances. I know that he's only 3 and that my real goal is to get him in the habit of verbalizing thanks for all of his blessings (and, let's face it, material possessions are big blessings to small children (and adults too)), but I still hope for the time when he'll talk about something other than stuff.

Tonight, my heart was blessed beyond anything I had hoped for. I must admit that I was prepared to write down one of his toys on his thankful leaf. And as I'm typing this, I'm recognizing how terrible it is that I get internally disappointed yet outwardly joyful whenever he's thankful for one of his personal belongings. I should be THANKFUL that my strong-willed three year old is willing to participate in our thankful tree. Wow. I certainly needed a little heart check!

So, we're sitting at the table finishing our meal and I ask Jackson, "What are you thankful for today?" He was sitting on his knees in his chair, he looked over at me with the sweetest expression on face, and said, "I'm thankful that Allison did not die when she swallowed the battery." My eyes filled with tears. My heart swelled inside. I could barely get a word out.

I never blogged about this event, but on September 25th, Allison swallowed a button battery. We didn't even know she had swallowed it. The next day, I changed her diaper after church and it was blacker than black. I tried to remember if I'd fed her anything that would cause it to be so dark (like frozen blueberries) but I had not. I examined her stool a little bit and noticed something reflecting a bit of light. As I looked closer, I noticed that it was a battery! It was one of those small button batteries that you put in pocket-size flash lights. I googled "swallowing button batteries" and called Poison Control just to be on the safe side. I felt confident that she was okay since she had passed the battery and wasn't displaying any negative symptoms (other than the black stool), until the lady at Poison Control told me that the black stool could indicate internal bleeding and google referenced articles of children who have died from swallowing these batteries. Great! Still at peace that she was fine, we (the whole family because we all like to be together in situations like this) took her to the ER. Four hours later, she was fine.

While we waited at the ER and then again on our drive home, we talked about how this all happened and why. We know that if Jason had changed her diaper, he would not have noticed the battery because he probably would not have paid such close attention to her stool. Neither would the nursery workers if Allison had pooped while at church. Since everything turned out to be okay, why did this have to happen? Why did I have to change the diaper and find the battery? We spent an entire Sunday afternoon at the ER with two exhausted children...and for what reason? I feel confident that I changed her diaper and found the battery and that we went through the whole ordeal simply to stop and praise the Lord for His sovereignty, His goodness, and His watchful eye. The battery could have lodged itself somewhere in her digestive tract and eventually killed her like has happened to other children, but it didn't. We had no idea that she swallowed the battery, but God knew. How often do things happen to or around us or our children that we are oblivious to and God protects us from harm or death?! I am positive that it happens often. This event caused us to praise Him. This event showed us the sovereignty of our God who controls all things and works all things according to His purposes. We could not stop thanking Him for protecting our little girl. We talked a lot to Jackson about thanking God for keeping Allison safe and protecting her from terrible harm. Apparently, he was listening!

Jason and I were overjoyed with his thankful leaf. And if that wasn't enough, after I wrote my leaf, Jackson looked at me and said, "Mommy, I am thankful that you are my mom." Then, he looked at Jason and said, "Dadda, I am thankful that you are my daddy." Our hearts could not have been squeezed any tighter.

And then he said, "Mommy, I'm also thankful for the backpack that Daddy bought me. And Mommy, I'm thankful that you bought me my scooter." I replied, "Daddy bought you that scooter too." He looked at me again and said, "Mommy, I'm thankful that you bought me my scooter." And before I could remind him that it was from Jason too, he looked at Jason and said, "Daddy, I'm thankful that you bought me my scooter." He had understood that it came from both of us, he just wanted to personally thank each of us.

(I did not purposely write in two different colors. I started with blue. When Jackson added to his thankful leaf, Jason was writing his leaf and using the blue pen. I did not try to discount the writing that is in red.)

What a night of thanksgiving! What more could I ask for?! And if that wasn't enough blessing for the day, there was more to come. We got an entire evening with Jason! Jason and Jackson put puzzles together and Allison and I played together downstairs (something we don't get to do very often). We all had so much fun and Jason and I had great quality time with our kids. Jason and I even bathed them together, which we rarely get to do because he's usually studying.

Jackson has to hide in their room to do puzzles because Allison loves to take them apart.

Crashing their party:

"In everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:18