Forever Families - Play "My Destiny" by Jim Brickman & Michelle Wright

"You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them." ~Desmond Tutu

The other day I had a patient come in for a cleaning. In my effort to make small talk, I asked her what she was doing for the holidays. She told me that she really had no plans, that she may hang out with friends. I asked her if her family lived out of state and she said "no." She stated that she just isn't close to her family. She doesn't get along with her siblings or her mother, her father had passed away. I talk to people every day and every time I hear a story like this it makes me so sad for the people who aren't close to their families. I know I have said this before but I really don't know where I would be today without the family that I have. I can't imagine not having a close relationship with every single person in my family.

Growing up with a disability, I could have learned to feel sorry for myself. I could have developed low self-esteem and not completely understood my potential. My parents never treated me differently from the other kids and always told me that I could accomplish anything I put my mind to. We all have strengths and we all have weaknesses. We cannot possibly know what our strengths are if we don't embrace our weaknesses, both make us who we are. This is what my family has taught me. I have always felt so much love and acceptance from my family and I know they love me as much as I love them. I love the LDS Primary song Families Can Be Together Forever, the words "I always want to be with my own family" says it all for me. I am so blessed to have been born to the parents that I have. I love every one of my 7 brothers and sisters, and their families. I love the entire Fisher family, they are such loving people and I am so blessed they are my family, and I thank my Heavenly Father every day for my loving husband and my beautiful children.


I feel sad for those who do not know the blessing of family. Family is the most important thing in my life. I could never want more than to be a good daughter, a great sister, a compassionate daughter-in-law, a loving wife and mother. I want my family to know how much I love you all and thank my Heavenly Father every day for my little place in the world, surrounded by those I love.

"The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. ~Erma Bombeck