February 4th I wrote a blog about our
Holiday and how life so to speak happened. Little did I know
that two days later we were going to be hit even harder with sickness. The kind
of sick where you end up with multiple trips to the emergency room, find out
you are deathly allergic to certain common antibiotics because you have been so
healthy your whole life that you have never had to be on them. It was that kind
of sick.. and it hit all 4 of us, hard. We as a family had pretty much been
sick from the end of November all the way into April. Most of our close friends
and family know all the lovely stories so I will not be getting into that. It’s
no mistake this happened right during the time my husband and I had been figuring
out our family mission. One area we really wanted to work on was the
part about giving in our community. During this time though, we were in
survival mode only trying to figure out how WE were going to get through the
day. Sounds very pathetic I know but that’s how hard it was. In the midst of
all this we also found out I was pregnant! This scared me to death because in
my past pregnancies I have suffered from Hypermesis (look it up). This is the
part where we had to be completely vulnerable and reliant on others support,
help and prayers. Something I had never fully understood until now. I believe
this time was used to show Blake and I what it really means to give. There were
certain people in our lives that overwhelming blessed us. I don’t think I have
ever felt so blessed. I mean people gave us multiple meals, got groceries for
us, did our laundry, took my kids so I could sleep, hired a cleaning lady. The
list really goes on and on. And every day I felt so helpless and wanted to give
back. I was so overwhelmed by it. But God kept reminding me that this is how
you give. You give to those around you who are in need. You give selflessly
with out expecting ANYTHING in return. It really showed us that we as a family
don’t really have to go to far in our community to see who we should give to but, the people in our sphere of influence are always going to be in need as well.
It really opened our eyes to how important giving is. It helped define our
family mission even more. We want to be selfless givers and even more
importantly raise our children to be selfless givers. We don’t know exactly how
to accomplish all this but we do now understand the importance of giving. If
there is one thing that we as the McKay’s want to be good at it, it is to be
willing to give and be selfless. I don’t know how to teach this other than;
live it out and be an example, talk to my children about giving (all forms of
giving) and pray their hearts are moved by it just as much as Blake’s and mine
are. Thank you to those (you know who are) for all of the support, and prayers.
You really opened our eyes even more to understand the importance of giving and
taught us how to give. My prayer is, that our heart as a family would
continually learn the meaning of giving and sacrifice. Because, only than can
we truly understand what it means to LOVE.
