Richly Blessed

Three families celebrate an extra-special Thanksgiving

Gathering with loved ones around a food-laden table each Thanksgiving Day is an opportunity for us to offer thanks for blessings usually taken for granted: good health, a loving family, a roof over our heads, and groceries in the pantry.

But some families have extra-special, and often unexpected, reasons to be thankful for this year, such as these three American families, who show us that blessings come in many forms: new life, a second chance, and the security of your own home.

The Danes are thrice-blessed

Imagine having three tiny, identical faces peering up at you from their crib each morning. It’s a sight Tim and Linda Dane know and love, very well.

“They’re so much fun right now. They’re starting to smile and coo and do all these neat little things,” Linda says of Miranda, Marissa, and Melinda, their triplets born April 8.

The Danes, of course, can tell their babies apart. Each has medium brown hair and the same big, blue eyes, but Miranda’s hair is slightly darker and thicker, while Marissa’s is a bit thinner. And little Melinda, born last, is slightly smaller than her sisters.

“She’s catching up,” her mom says.

Statistics show the odds of having naturally conceived identical triplets are about one out of every 100,000. The Danes—whose family includes 18 sets of twins since 1910—learned they were having triplets when Linda was eight weeks’ pregnant. “It was pretty much … Wow!” recalls Linda, 37.

Because she began going into labor much too early, Linda was put on hospital rest in March at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Marshfield, Wis., about 100 miles from their home in Park Falls, Wis. (pop. 2,793).

Tim was at home with the girls’ brother, Frosty, 14, and sister, Mackenzie, 2, when Linda called to tell him the babies were on their way. He was on the road to the hospital—his cell phone connecting him to the delivery room—when he heard their first healthy cries.

“Oh, it was just joyous,” says Tim, 38, a police officer. “Good thing I was pulled over.”

In July, after three months’ maternity leave made easier by her mother, Frosty, and even little Mackenzie, Linda went back to her job at the U.S. Forest Service. Each morning after she’s secured them in their car seats for the ride to daycare, her tiny daughters give her a little boost that starts her day right.

“I look back at them, and they all turn to look at me, and I get these three smiles straight across,” she says. “They’re such cute little personalities.”

Linda and Tim—who’ve been friends since childhood—will celebrate the three extra little additions around their Thanksgiving table this year. “To be blessed with the miracle of three healthy, happy babies … you just can’t imagine it,” Linda says. “We are so lucky.”

Indeed, the Danes may not be finished creating their family. “We’d love to have more. Life’s about kids,” Linda says.

That remains to be seen, but Tim says there’s at least one household addition that’s coming pretty soon. “With five girls in the house, I’m definitely going to need another bathroom.”

Home sweet home for the Johnsons

When Fred and Betty Johnson sit down to Thanksgiving dinner with their children this year, they won’t be in the house where they’d lived for more than a decade. But they won’t feel a bit homesick.

Last July, the Johnsons moved into a brand new home—the first they’ve ever owned.

“Everybody’s so excited,” Betty Johnson says. “We’re just on top of the world right now.” She and Fred share the home in Amado, Ariz., (pop. 275) with four of their six kids. Their two eldest daughters have families of their own nearby.

The Johnsons’ good fortune is due in part to Habitat for Humanity International, the nonprofit organization that helps low-income families purchase homes with low monthly payments and no-interest loans. In return, the families, along with local volunteers, actually build the homes.

“I think, first, who we have to stop and thank is God,” Betty says.

The family had rented their previous residence for 11 years, and the adobe home was falling into disrepair. “The whole structure needed to be redone,” she says.

When it came to investing the 400 hours of “sweat equity” required of Habitat families, the Johnsons’ community came through with flying colors. More than 45 members of their church helped build the three-bedroom, two-bath house.

“They’ve helped us make our dreams come true,” says Betty, 46, a home-health aide whose husband is disabled. “Without them … we wouldn’t have made it.”

The Johnsons plan to help build Habitat homes so other families can know the joy they feel at home ownership.

Fred, 48, associates his new home with the joy he knew growing up in the Santa Cruz Valley. “I put it this way; it’s my little Canoa,” he says, referring to Canoa Ranch, where he lived on land his father—and about 40 other families—farmed in exchange for housing. “I always loved that ranch.”

The Johnson children were as excited as their parents about their new home and helped as much as they were allowed. Steven, Fredrick, Whitney, and Ebony—who range in age from 10 to 15—weren’t allowed to help build because the required age to do so is 16. But on move-in day, they started making the home their own.

“They were able to spread out gravel on our property,” Betty says. “And when they worked on the gravel, they made plans on how to do things on the yard.”

Fred has plans as well. “One thing I want to do is clear out an area so Betty can grow a garden,” he says.

Besides extra cupboard space and a second bathroom, their view is something for which they’ve waited a lifetime, Betty says.

“We have the best scenery you can possibly ask for,” she says. “We’re up on a hill, and we look down into the valley, and there’s mountains all around us.

“That’s going to be our home forever.”

David Haskins' fighting spirit

Thanksgiving Day falls on Nov. 28 this year, but for the Haskins family, the date likely won’t match the joy they knew April 18. That’s the day they brought David home.

David Haskins, 20, of New Port Richey, Fla., (pop. 16,117) had been in a Tampa hospital for nearly four months, since New Year’s Eve, when a major artery ruptured in his brain during a touch football game with friends. It nearly was fatal.

“I felt tingling all over, and I couldn’t breathe. I felt chest pains and stuff,” David recalls of the sudden occurrence. “My parents told me (later that at the time) I had like minutes to live. It’s scary to think about, but it’s great that I’m alive and have the rest of my life to live.”

After surviving through a coma, heavy sedation, and temporary paralysis, David is well on his way to recovery. While he still lacks full use of his left side, he’s out of his wheelchair and is using a walker.

“I was left-handed, so I’m learning everything right-handed now,” David says, the determination evident in his voice.

He must attend physical therapy three days a week until he’s walking on his own. But he says he couldn’t have gotten as far as he has without his family, friends, and God.

“I always believed in God but now it’s like … if it wasn’t for him and my family and people praying for me, I don’t think I’d be here right now,” David says. “Everyone in the hospital put a name tag on me saying I was like a miracle.”

His siblings—three sisters and a brother—knew David’s spirit would help pull him through. “He’s a fighter. He never gives up,” says Stacie, 18. “We all knew that he was going to make it.”

Having their son with the family this holiday season is the best gift they’ve ever received, say his parents, Yvonne and David Sr. “I treasure everything he can do now,” Yvonne says. “When he walks and talks, it’s just amazing from where he was.”

Yvonne remembers well the moment she knew she’d have her son back. “The day before he started doing anything, I felt a twitch in his hand,” she recalls, still a bit emotional from the experience. “Then the next day we went in, and the nurse said, ‘Watch this,’ and she told him to stick out his tongue, and he just stuck his tongue out. I was thrilled to death.”

This Thanksgiving, David’s plans are simple, yet undoubtedly powerful. “I’ll probably just sit down, eat some turkey, and be thankful for my being here.”

Laura Sewell is a freelance writer living in Brentwood, Tenn.

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