After what I’ll honestly call a very difficult year, I can say, I’m doing great. But the hope we celebrated at Christmas means more than ever.

“Oh what a foretaste of glory divine.” This year I’ll settle for the foretaste while nurturing hope for glory someday.

We’re glad to see her again, but I’ve decided I just can’t give Christmas all she may want from me. And that’s OK.

“Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” I’m trying, I’m really trying.

Through the decades, we stay the same, but our circumstances change. We approach life as we always have, even though life has become so different. Christmas is the perfect example of this.

I have lived a privileged life . . . even now. Especially now. That’s what I’m coming to realize.

Despite the difficulties in our days, here’s a gallery—just in time for Thanksgiving—to help me express a few ways I’m thankful.

“We ARE our memory,” a friend said to me. And this adds another layer of sadness—and resolve—as I watch my wife’s memory fade and falter.

“I’ve eaten the last thing my mother will ever bake,” just the first of a long list of “last times” we could write. But “last times” are not unique to Alzheimer’s caregivers.

Going through this makes us stronger. We don’t like it, but in retrospect we can say, “OK, God, you’ve humbled me. You’ve made me a better person.”

I thought about home the whole time I was away. And it dawned on me that, although my grandson is great in every way, caring for a preschooler has definite similarities to my caregiving duties in Ohio.

Though we have hard days and life is like a yo-yo right now, I am thankful for a God who listens and comes to help me through the rough spots.

I’m learning—and I’m determined to keep learning—that joy follows gratitude, not the other way around.

I have a confession. Even though I’ve been doing ministry for 50 years and have been a believer for 55 years or so, I still have more questions about prayer than I have answers.

Protecting from the pain and loss that comes with all of life, preserving beauty for just a little while longer. These are the tasks of every caregiver.

In our house, we are determined to take just one day at a time, relying on God, and not to jump into the future and steal the joy God is giving us today.

Memories from birthdays past are a gift to ME as we celebrate again today.

Our journey began in 2005, and the years since then have been filled with surprises, challenges, grief—and blessings. Many blessings.

Holding tight to the past is not a strategy that brings peace. I learned an important lesson from a caregiver friend.

No matter how I sacrifice or what I know, love is the key that gives caregiving its power.