Today, I want to talk to you about expectations and about situations that don’t end up going the way we would hope they would. Believe me, I have had a lot of experience in that area. I have told you about my ostomy journey but that wasn’t the end of my health struggles. After retiring from football, I discovered that I had been infected with the hepatitis C virus from the blood transfusions I had received during my ostomy operation (80 units). At that time, hepatitis C had just been identified and was known as “the silent killer,” a virus that killed more people than AIDS. Over the next five years as science advanced, I would enroll in three very difficult clinical trials that required me to inject myself daily with a drug called Interferon. The side effects of the treatment were horrific – shaking chills, fevers, drenching sweat, and overwhelming fatigue. Although the first two trials were not successful, the third trial finally worked, and I was cured! Now there is an all-oral medication with NO side effects that is 95% successful in curing Hepatitis c patients. Amazing!

Life also didn’t go the way I had envisioned it would go when I got married. My wife came from a large family and really wanted kids. Unfortunately, we struggled with having children and endured multiple miscarriages and a stillborn, before having our first child, a preemie girl born at just 27 weeks (about 6 months) who ended up with cerebral palsy. We then adopted a little girl locally but, unfortunately, her birth mother decided to take her back eight days after we brought her into our home leaving us devastated.

All this heartbreak led us to adopt from Russia where, with help, we found and brought home two young boys (ages 3 and 5) from an orphanage, before surprisingly, getting pregnant with a healthy fourth child. As you might imagine, this led to a very different parenting experience as the Russian boys came with significant developmental delays and special needs to go with our daughter’s CP challenges. Mary and I endured many long days and sleepless nights during those early years and, at the time, would have preferred a different outcome. Looking back now, however, what is amazing to both of us is that we would not change anything because of how the experiences shaped us, built our character and the joy our kids have added to our lives.

I hope you will take a moment to watch the video today and reflect on your life as I share one of my favorite poems, Most Richly Blessed. My prayer for you is that you will get to the point many of us ostomates around the world have gotten to where you can also say, “I got nothing I asked for but everything I had hoped for.

Enjoy the journey!