Chuck's Birhday

Today we spent the day celebrating by brother-in-law's birthday. The whole family was in town to celebrate his 39th birthday. We have all had our differences and lately it has been very tense. I did not want to attend this party,but I support my husband and so I said that I would go and play nice. The day started off with a nice thunderstorm and a huge rain storm. So by the time we made it to my sister-in-law's house it was nice and humid. FUN! We all made small talk for a few hours and then it was time to eat. The food was great and we were all managing to get along. Then it was time to open presents. I suppose that it would be a good time to tell you that the birthday boy has ALS and is confined to a wheelchair. He is getting progressively worse everyday and his speech is not good at this time. When the whole family, all 24 of us, got into the same room I think it hit us that this would probably be the last birthday that he will be having. It really hit me when his wife started reading the cards that everyone had given him. What would I do if I knew that it was my last birthday? Or even that this visit might be my last with my family? The whole family knows that God has a plan for our lives, but sitting there tonight it was hard to accept the way his plan is playing out in our lives. After all the tears or at least some of the tears had dried up we began taking family pictures. I try to have a positive attitude so that we can keep it together for my brother-in -law, but man sometimes it just hits you hard. It made all the little things that we all fight about seem so unimportant. I wish I could say that maybe they will find a cure for this disease before it takes his life, but I know that is not likely. I am glad that I played nice and went to the party. I learned that family is way more important that all the little arguments we have. I hope that we will have more great family time with Chuck.