Ever Thankful

I wrote a bunch here, I poured my heart out then when I came back today and read it, it made little sense. So here's is a condensed version of what I was trying to express.

In the last 8 years we've been through hard times.
We have lost jobs, had hard feelings between family members, lived apart, been homeless, been without insurance or medical attention, been in debt. We have made such bad and ignorant choices that we had to file bankruptcy and start our lives over with little hope of ever owning a home and difficulty renting one as well. Our vehicle was repossessed. We've been without insurance while I was pregnant, told our child needed urgent dental care and been unable to do anything to help him. We've ended up owing thousands to medical offices. My license was stolen along with my purse and without those things I wasn't able to prove I existed and get replacements - then I hit a Porshe while pushing my car from traffic and ended up owing more money. We've found out that the the numbness in Mike's leg is due to a severed nerve, not just damage and is irepairable. And most recently we've watched people we care about lose job and homes to the state of the economy.
The day our youngest was born was also Mike's first day working at the City of Bend and that was where our lives took a turn for the better. Today he has wonderful insurance that allows us to take care of all of us, he's finally making enough money that we are comfortable, and we just started buying our first home.
What a long way we've come. It was a hard road and we're better people in nearly every way for it. There were times I didn't think we'd make it.
Every time I think of how far we've come and what a difference there is in our lives, I cry. I can't help it. When Mike spent that summer living in a campground so far away from us, if you had told me that in 4 years we would be buying a big, beautiful home and capable of paying all of our debts as they came instead of smothering underneath them, I would have screamed you out of my sight. I would never have hoped, I would never have let myself dream that it would really happen.