Be Thankful! Pay It Forward!

Just when you think...or make the mistake of saying... "Things couldn't get any worse!"

Little did I know when I started out today, that, that statement, should have been followed by a question mark, Not an exclamation! Thank goodness I still have a sense of humour.

The date, December 10th, 2009

I started out on my travels today, to accomplish getting tortured with the usual, familiar jabbings of the once again " blood tests " that needed to be done. I was already, fasting, and caffeine deprived ( that's just cruel! ) . My spouse was grinning as he sipped 'his' hot, steaming coffee----Therefore, of course, I had to pass some sly remarks in his general direction, with a devious grin on my face, as I made my exit out the door, stepping quietly, so as not to wake our four year old.....Tip Toe...............Tip Toe............................................................ Wait - a - minute!! ..........................................He has "HIS" coffee, why should he have peace and quiet too? Ha ......Nah!!... Even I couldn't do that!

As previously mentioned in my first hub, we had already found ourselves in pretty dire circumstances. We had just recently lost our source of employment, our way of life, and I had lost my home that I had been so proud of... , I lost my truck, I lost my tractor...I am a strange gal-- but I really loved that truck and tractor....Ah well... Enough of the pity party.

As my step-daughter laughingly states to anyone that needs to hear it.... "Suck it up Princess .. and put your Big Girl Panties On"!!!--- Yes, indeed, she has a way of making her point-- ahh .. to be twenty something again!

So, here we are 2 weeks away from Christmas and "No" money, 5 kids, thankfully we still had his home, however, we only had 2 baseboard heaters heating the house. Which was ok until a few days ago when it turned colder. We had just had our wood stolen that my spouse had cut the year before ....the man that took the wood even raked the spot where it was piled. :) And NO!...I didn't make him give it back..........as he was hurting too!.

So, my spouse scrambled to cut more wood as fast as he could ( because winter was coming and we knew we were going to lose the tractor)..we had prayed that things would turn around. So, amazingly, as we were contemplating what we were going to do about getting our flu for our woodstove....and yes...ok...feeling a little sorry for ourselves again... it was as if our prayers were answered......because there were 3 people within about 12 hours who stopped and inquired about buying our shed ( we had been trying to sell it for weeks). The asking price ??--- The exact amount that we needed, to buy our stove pipe.............. :)

So, back to why my trip to go for bloodtests became the latest--- " Things couldn't get any worse??????" ...... Or could they???

Angels were watching over me today!

As I was driving along in the car that had been lent to us, I hear the screeching of metal and lose control of the car. There was a couple of vehicles behind me on the four laner and one of them was passing the car immediately behind me. The tire had broken off and jammed up into the driver's side door, smoke was billowing and yet somehow,....again, ... my prayers were answered. I was able to stear the vehicle off of the road.... and no one was hurt ! Then the nicest gentleman came along, I believe that he was driving a yellow truck, possibly government road worker near Oromocto, New Brunswick. I believe he said his name was Duplissey--- I will check on that .....he allowed me to make calls and took me to a tow company, and then on to Canadian Tire in Oromocto.....where their staff was awesome -----but unfortunately, too much damage had been done to the car, so -- back to square one --no vehicle again. On the brighter side, the lovely staff at the Oromocto Hospital did allow me to have my bloodwork drawn at their hospital instead of Fredericton where I was suppose to go. So, at least, my coffee deprived morning wasn't for nothing.

I am very Thankful--- that No one was hurt!

As I mentioned we have five children. We have a 4 year old and also four older children, 2 in college and 2 working. The older children understand that we aren't able to celebrate Christmas the traditional way as far as gift giving this year, but they also appreciate that this Christmas, we will be able to spend more time with them, than we ever could, when we lived in and ran the Special Care Home. I miss the residents, we had alot of fun! I had the opportunity to treat them as family, and get to know their families. I believe that whatever God's purpose was for me there, has been served, and now I am simply moving on, to open new doors to the future. I am proud of how hard we worked, and I know that we could not have done anymore than what we did. So that, is how I comfort myself over that loss.

My point in sharing this and much more with you is that, if you are ever struggling in any area of your life,......have faith......we don't always have the answers, we always seem to have questions, doubts, and fears, ............but the sun will rise tomorrow....be thankful for the little things......shelter, a warm home, a bed to sleep in, food to eat, healthy children, happy family, friends and loved ones! So Play games, eat wonderful turkey dinners, laugh alot, sing and be merry. Don't get me wrong... I love giving gifts ... I love taking time to let those people that are important in my life, know that I treasure them. If you are financially able, perhaps when you give your gifts this year, to your loved one's, you will give a gift this Christmas to someone in your community that is less fortunate. It is amazing what can be accomplished if we all do a little something and " Pay It Forward".

I hope that you stay tuned...to " My Story " as I take you back through my years and hopefully I can help you enjoy the True meaning of Christmas.

From my family to yours......We Wish You A Wonderful Christmas And A Prosperous, Healthy and Happy New Year!

Deborah MacPherson

P.S. You should also understand that I did not write this article for sympathy. Rather, I wrote this, to hopefully, be able to remind people to have faith, keep their chin up, and to enjoy every minute on this earth, that we each, have been blessed enough to be given.

As an update, two of my dear friends, who never knew about this hub, just surprised us immensely. Kenny and Brenda just drove two hours after they had their family christmas dinner, and told us that Santa had got confused on which house was who's. :) They dropped off a couple of presents for our 4 year old, from Santa. Just another example demonstrating, the joy that we each can have from giving and receiving. They have always been hardworking, kind and generous. They are the type of people that always welcome you into their home and their hearts. I have to admit, that made me teary eyed, but for a good reason. :) The gifts were wonderful for us to be able to put under the tree for our little girl, but the most important to me, was that they cared enough to take time out of their day, to come spend time with us! They are amazing friends.

Unfortunately, another update as of Feb.18th, 2010.........We lost our wonderful son Daniel Shane Beck at the age of 21. He died as a result of a motor vehicle accident on his way home from seeing his new baby be born. Nothing in our lives could ever compare to such a loss. It absolutely takes your breathe away. I am only updating this as of December 17th........I could not bring myself to write the words. As sad as losing Daniel has been he blessed us with 2 beautiful grand-daughters to love and adore..and for that we are grateful. I wish that no one had to experience such a loss, but if you do..or if you have,, My heart and prayers are with you. God Bless!

Tammy Lochmann

Yay looks like I am number 5...I am in good company though all my favorite authors are here. Look forward to seeing more. Good luck!

chrismarva

I am so glad to be a fan of Browneyes41 and if you are reading this you should come join us.

Putz Ballard

Great hubs! Welcome to hub pages!

habee

Yay!! I'm your first fan! Like you, I enjoyed and was inspired by Pay it Forward.

Just a thought that I wanted to pass on to my readers, that a dear friend pointed out to me many years ago..... When writing "Merry Christmas", some people have been writing "Merry X-Mas" instead. If we truly are celebrating the True meaning of Christmas shouldn't we stop replacing "Christ" with an "X"? I realize that the X was at one time meant to represent the cross, however, I still choose to write Merry Christmas!

With permission, I copied the following and totally agree with it so I am passing it on...

"Enough already. This time of year, under the guise of 'political correctness' more and more people are wishing others 'happy holidays.' The thinking being that the recipient of the well wishes might not be Christian and therefore might somehow be offended or feel alienated by hearing, "Merry Christmas." Consider these three factors when choosing your greeting:
Christmas is a religious event. Were it not for the Christian faith there simply wouldn't be a Christmas. We have other days of the year devoted to celebrating the birth of our nation and to honor our mothers and fathers. Christmas however, was not created as merely a day-off (that's called Labour Day).

How do you suppose a Jewish person would feel if rather than saying, "Happy Hanukkah", a non Jewish person just said "Happy Holiday"? Do you suppose a Muslim fasting during the period of Ramadan would appreciate a non Muslim calling it a 'holiday'? The word holiday in the English language no longer conveys the original meaning of holy-day. Instead it's become a colloquialism for a vacation (British vacationers are commonly referred to as 'holiday-makers').

For those people who do practice Christianity, simply wishing them a "Happy Holiday" is to avoid calling the event by its proper name and to demonstrate our intentional or inadvertent disregard for one of their most sacred religious events of the year. To me this is the height of political incorrectness.
If our purpose is to send a non religious greeting to our clients then perhaps we'd be better off sending cards on Groundhog Day. In the meantime, here's wishing you a Merry Christmas!"


John & Laureen Gunter

I believe strongly in the "Power of Positive Thinking", and "Learning Something New Each and Everyday"! I am a big fan of the Dr.Phil show, and of course, a big fan of Robin's. You can find some Self Help books from Dr.Phil here! I hope that this holiday season, that you stay positive and happy.