What an encouraging thread. Not sure how I've missed it for a year and a half. Thanks to everyone for sharing.
My wife and I had some tough marital issues about 10 years ago. Came to a point where we basically looked at each other and said, "stay, or go?" We decided to try to work it out. We got marriage counselling, made a plan to work out our differences, and stuck to it. I can't begin to say how glad I am we decided to stay together. I am deeply, devotedly in love with this woman.
Our joy, and sometimes our heartache, has been the adoption of our son Thor. He has made our lives immeasurably rich. Thor has serious physical and developmental disabilities. He is unable to eat orally, and has microcephally, an underdeveloped head and brain. Early on it was uncertain that he would live. In his first 2 years he had been in the hospital 90 days and had 8 operations. By God's grace and the skill of excellent doctors, Thor is now three and one-half, and is growing and developing. He is still unable to eat orally, and will never be "normal", but he is doing very well in comparison to how he had been. The Bible says that our children are our inheritance. I don't fully understand what that means, but I know that my happiness is complete, and that my joy is overflowing. If I died tonight, I would die a happy man.
