I’ve often said that I was educated at the “school of hard knocks.” Aside from being plagued by depression for many years, I have experienced some pretty big heartaches in my life.

Not quite four years into our marriage, my husband and I were blessed with a baby boy. However, our son, because of an injury at birth, spent most of his short life in a hospital and died just days after his first birthday. After that loss, I suffered a miscarriage. Some time later, our next son came into our lives. We were overjoyed, but he has struggled with some issues that have affected all of our lives. When our third son arrived, all was well, and we were so thankful. But at fifteen years of age, he became a burn victim whose recovery was a year-long process. In between those times, both of my parents passed away. Thankfully, they had both lived good, long lives. Several years later, our older son’s partner passed away because of a heart attack, leaving two young children, one of whom was seven weeks old. We were privileged to help take care of these little ones. A few years after that, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Thankfully, it was caught early.

Character

I can’t say that we know why these things happened to us, but they have made us who we are. I think they have built character in us because early on we decided to accept these events as God’s plan for our lives and, as the saying goes, “become better, not bitter.” In acceptance there is peace.