Defining Moments

For weeks I have gone over this post in my mind.

I've picked up the pieces of people with a lack of commitment.

I've taken a good hard look at my own life and what I can change to make myself a better person.

I've read nutrition books, scoured web sites over and over.

I've made a plan in my mind. It is ready to be put on paper and followed.

I've attempted to pin point the moments in my life that have shaped me into who I am today.

I am still learning.

Today my thoughts and actions bringing me to this point hardly matter.

This morning, Ryan climbed in bed with me. He was awaiting the celebration that he knew I had planned for him. I hadn't planned anything. A gift awaited him in my closet, but a celebration, I had none.

As I lay in bed with his head snuggled against my chest, I realized that a defining moment in my life had come 9 years earlier on this day.

Nine years ago, I lay in a hospital bed, in pain and anemic. My own blood was being transfused back into my body to make up for the 36 oz of marrow that had been taken from my hip. I hadn't slept well. There were problems with the processing of the marrow and we were praying for a miracle.

Early in the morning of March 2, we received the good news. The transplant was going forward, and a chance at life was about to be given to our family.


(Here it is. What was left of 36 oz of marrow - 3 coke cans worth - it is a miracle. It sustains life.)


We didn't know what the future held. We just knew that for this small moment our lives were being defined. A shape was beginning to form.

I hope that I never come to a point in my life where I have a loss of gratitude for the blessing my Heavenly Father has given me. I look back to the time we spent at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles, and it seems like a world away, yet there are moments when it enters my mind and my heart with clarity.

So today as I observe the world around me, I again thank God for the many defining moments in my life. Especially this one.