So grateful I am to have found this community of SC bloggers. It is impressive to see the number of members here sharing themselves with one another.

The following post is something that I journaled about earlier this month. I feel compelled to share it here on this forum with all of you. Be encouraged!

~NO MATTER HOW HARD IT GETS, FIND A WAY TO FIND SOMETHING TO BE GRATEFUL ABOUT

For some reason I thought that the very next time I'd have to be admitted into the hospital, I'd be completely devestated and highly upset. I just knew that I would be angry. I've never not been angry about the interruption of my everything.

For the last five or so years, I've been telling myself that when it happened again, I would not get mad. I told myself that I would do my very best to stay in a grateful state of mind...to remember how blessed I have been. I am thankful that I can actually say that I had a hard time remembering the last time I've been in the hospital.

Still, I thought it would be really hard to not spazz out about getting sick again...thats what I always did...spazz out. But this time it went a little differently. I tried to spazz out. I tried to get angry, I just couldn't.

All I could do was think of God's favor upon my life and be thankful for the last four or five years that I've had Birthdays, Thanksgivings, Christmas' and such with my family. I thought about our Family Vacation to Jamaica last year that actually included my entire family! A Blessing, indeed! I thought about all the days that I was actually able to get up and go work a full day for nine years with little to no incident at all. He's been good to me! I thought about the fact that I am 40!! I actually am alive and well at 40! Didn't expect it. Didn't plan for it. Didn't deserve it - but I'm here!!

I thought about my cousins David and Tina who have both passed on last year from SC and I just couldn't get angry. I was in so much pain but I just kept thanking God for the 1,825 plus days that I didn't spend in that kind of pain. I didn't fall apart. I was okay. I took it for what it was and rode it out. I found something to be truly grateful for and it really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

Peace & Blessings Ya'll!