My son Christopher is 21 tomorrow, and we are going out for a meal to celebrate! That might seem quite ordinary but Christopher is anything but ordinary, born with major heart defects he has been in and out of surgery all his life... ( for any one not familiar with his story you can find it here!)
Life with Chris has been interesting and challenging, through living with Chris we have learnt to pray, through living with Chris we have discovered that life is worth living to the full whenever possible...
Parts of his life have been very difficult- but there have been times of immense joy too, when we lived in Texas he was rather taken with the idea that his birthday fell close to Thanksgiving!
So in giving thanks I will remember some of the surprising and amusing and wonderful things about living with Chris!
Chris has always been stubborn, on the night before his first really major operation (10 hours; the previous op had "only" taken 6 hours!))he refused to go to sleep and kept us awake until 3am going up and down slides and riding a toy car up and down Rose Gallery at the Brompton Hospital... he finally settled down to sleep at around 4am just two hours before he needed to be woken for a pre-med! Thankfully he went straight back to sleep. Chris was 2 1/2!
His favourite toy at that age was a box of cars, he took this to bed, preferring it to anything cuddly! We were told to bring something comforting for him to wake up to after the op... all he wanted was his box of cars!
Chris has enjoyed an active life- a miracle since we were told he would probably never ride a bike and exercise would always be difficult! He has enjoyed canoing, sailing, abseiling and climbing! At the age of 10 he climbed Gordale Scar, Tim following behind him, only once we'd realised he was happily half way up! He got to the top, and grinned from ear to ear... so much for being unable to do much physical activity!
Like most boys Chris enjoys football (soccer), and an after school activity was often a game of football outside in our quiet street. One winter following weeks of snow fall, Chris and his friends were fed up and decided a game was in order, Chris being competitive dived to save a goal and broke his arm.... the next week we had to explain to the cardiac surgeons how he'd broken his arm playing football on the ice!
Camping and water sports were family activities through out the summer and Chris loves sailing, and canoing, but one camping trip to Saxmundham in Suffolk the water proved a little too attractive, he fell in the lake, and the sea and into a river... went through all of his clothes and had to borrow clothes from his best friend another Chris!
A sense of humour has rescued Chris from many scrapes, but it has also got him into more than a few... one day he was asked to thank guests for attending the school carol service in our church, the Head teacher was rather uptight about church and expected exemplary behaviour from all of the pupils. Chris was happily shaking folk by the hand smiling and thanking them for coming when one of the boys next to him " broke wind", Chris smoothly transitioned from "Thank you for coming, thank you for coming to thank you for farting "and smoothly back again... "thank you for coming!..." The poor head teacher nearly died on the spot... the Minister who was no help locked himself in the office in hysterics... he knew Chris well! It may be one of those things that needed to be witnessed to understand how funny it was- but some church members at Tollesbury still laugh about it today!
Chris enjoyed living in Texas, the temperature suited him and he played soccer and basketball, he really enjoyed camping , his favourite trip was out to Enchanted Rock- he climbed to the top with no problems!
Since we moved back to England in 2000, Chris has struggled with deteriorating health, but has battled through changes in medication and frequent hospital admissions to pass both his GCSE's and A'levels ( the results came whilst he was in intensive care).
This last year has been hard, Chris has fought back from the brink of death to a life that is hard, he is reliant upon drugs everyday, and always will be, the complications mean he is no longer able to enjoy sport and will probably always walk with a stick/ crutch. He has a pacemaker, and this kicks in when his heart cannot regulate its own rhythm.
But Chris is still smiling and still fighting on, he has suffered bouts of depression and despair, but he has also determinedly boarded trains to travel to visit friends, and to get to a couple of Dave Matthews concerts, he has been generous with his brothers and sisters, treating them to tickets and events that he has known they will enjoy!
His faith is strong- but he won't put up with nonsense, it is no good telling Chris he will be healed if only he prays in the right way! But he loves God and his preaching has a prophetic edge to it- he is currently training as a Methodist Local Preacher and is hoping to go to Cliff College next September.
So today I am giving thanks for Chris- for the lessons he has taught me about life, for the spirited young man who takes one day at a time. Every day we have Chris with us is a bonus, some days it is easy to look to the future, other days it seems impossible, but today as I have said we give thanks.
The moon is traditionally thought to be one of the darker cards- a card you would not choose to encounter... all appears desolate and fearful- this is a place where we confront our deepest fears and desolations.
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