Remember To Give Thanks For Unexpected Blessings!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends on the web from the Hughes family. We are currently in the midst of decorating our house for Christmas, cleaning for company, and cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Just call us masters at multi-tasking!

In the quiet before the guests arrive, I stopped to reflect on the people in our family and how thankful I am for each of them.

First, I am incredibly thankful for my wife. She's the perfect wife for me. We like to relax together and share in this journey of life. Laughter is a constant companion of ours in our busy lives. Her humor, support, and patience with me as we share the burdens of raising a family has been a source of great strength for me. After nine years of marriage on Dec 4, we have learned a lot about each other and ourselves. We've smoothed each other's rough edges. We're not perfect (anyone who has seen our messy house can attest to that) but we have fun and we're in this together!

Second, our oldest son Noah turns 8 tomorrow. I remember the day we found out that we were going to be parents. We had only been married a few months, and with our "no kids for at least 5 years" plan that we had going, a baby was the last thing we expected. Jaci came out of the bathroom after taking the pregnancy test assuring me that she knew she wasn't pregnant only to see as she completed that sentence a second line appear on the test. Shock soon gave way to surprising joy. God is often like that. He brings things to us that we didn't expect, or perhaps in a way or timing that we didn't expect. Hey, I met my wife because I dated her sister first, so the Hughes family is all about unexpected blessings! Noah was born 5 weeks early and peed in my face the very first time that I changed him. He has grown from a playful outgoing little baby to a deeply reflective and tender-hearted boy.

Noah can be a handful sometimes, but when I reflect on all of the contributions he has made to our family and the tremendous heart that he has for others, I can't help but be blessed. The Lord has big plans for that boy!

Then I reflect on the baby that Jaci and I lost a few years later and the subsequent 2 years of trying for another baby. I remember how Jaci struggled with others who were having babies. It seemed everywhere we looked a new baby was being born and yet every month our hopes for a second child were dashed. Finally, in a Christmas card in 2003, Jaci's cousin wrote a word from the Lord to us that we would be pregnant within a year. We held on to that promise as month after month went by.

In October of 2004 we were on our last month before infertility treatments were to begin. Jaci took several tests which were all negative. This month for me was different though. I felt the Lord (who doesn't really speak to me audibly like others claim) telling me that Jaci was going to be pregnant. Finally, Jaci took another test and again the result was negative. I wasn't defeated, but Jaci really was. She left her test on the sink in the bathroom and as I entered to take my shower, I noticed that there was now a very faint second line on the test. I told Jaci the news and we took many more tests just to make sure. They all turned out the same. One mature Christian woman told me that God wanted me to tell Jaci the news because I was the one He had sent the word to that she would be pregnant.

That baby turned our to be our daughter Reagan. She was the first girl born into the Hughes family in about 60 years. She is currently going through a little bit of a phase, but she is deep at heart a loving little girl who's smile brightens up our home. She can often be overheard singing a princess song in the car, the bathtub, the kitchen, wherever she happens to be.

Then there's Jackson. He is Dr. Destructo. He demolishes our house and doesn't think twice of knocking his sister over or taking toys from her. He is in the two year old stage of freaking out maniacally if he doesn't get his way on something. Yet he also has a joyful fun-loving side that just radiates throughout our home.

Jackson was also a surprise. I came home one day to my 2 kids sitting on the dining room table with balloons around them and Jaci manning the video camera. On Noah's stomach, she had written "Big Brother X 2" and on Reagan's she had written "Big Sister." I was shocked. We spent most of that next week bursting out into random laughter (much like I imagine Sarah and Abraham did!)

God likes to surprise us with the joys of life. We sometimes miss that when our child is misbehaving or the bills are late. We sometimes look at our problems instead of our blessings.

On Thanksgiving I am saying a big THANK YOU to the Lord for the wonderful family that I am not worthy of and that makes my life an unspeakable joy. It is the high calling of my life to be called Jaci's husband and the father of Noah, Reagan and Jackson.

God Bless you and your family this Thanksgiving!