When your child has Type 1 Diabetes, it’s easy to feel like she got short-changed. What did she do to receive this life-sentence? How will this affect the way she moves through the world? How will it impede her? What a raw deal. 

 

 
It’s good to step back and find things to be thankful for, even in the midst of coming to terms with the implications of this serious diagnosis. And since Thanksgiving is this week, it seems appropriate to express that gratitude here. 

• I’m grateful that my husband had the presence of mind to raise the idea of diabetes before things got to an emergency state with our daughter.
• In a complex tension of thankfulness, I suppose I’m thankful that she’s young as she receives this diagnosis and won’t really know anything different as she matures. It will be part of her every day life. 
• I’m thankful for her personality which is responsible, conscientious as well as being fun-loving and playful. She’s able to advocate for herself already, and express her needs and/or situation matter -of-factly, even to those who may be unfamiliar with T1D.
• Our daughter is healthy and doesn’t struggle with other underlying health issues that could complicate this further. I’m grateful for that.
• My husband is an equal partner in caring for our daughter’s T1D. For that I am profoundly grateful.
• I also trust that God loves our daughter and will walk alongside her. There may not be a miraculous healing, but she’s not in it alone, even when we’re not around. It may be cold comfort at times, but it may also be a source she can turn to when we inevitably screw things up for her (we are her human parents, after all). This doesn’t mean that God and I have made peace over this, but we’re still duking it out, and I’m still in the ring.

That’s what I can come up with today. Maybe next year I’ll be able to find more gratitude for other things related to diabetes. I know there are more and I hope that as we become more familiar with our diagnosis, I can become more aware, zooming in to those things I’m skimming over.

I wish you all (all three of you wonderful readers) a happy Thanksgiving. May you cultivate ever deeper gratitude and joy in the year to come.