As I type this, I am sitting in the waiting room at Lafayette General Hospital for a family member of mine to come out of a procedure for her heart. This is nothing new.

The hospital doesn't feel cold or scary anymore, and it has been a long time since it has felt this way. I wouldn't say it's comforting, because honestly, who enjoys being in the hospital... but it is something relatively close. I know exactly where and what the cafeteria serves, I could bring you to any floor of the hospital and tell you what they do there, I can show you all the best things in the gift shop, and I can also recommend all of the best food places that surround the hospital for when you are sick of the cafeteria food- when a fruit cup with a Dr. Pepper just doesn't cut it anymore.

In the last couple of years, or honestly the entirety of my life, I have lived in a world where getting a call that my sister/mother/other family member is in the Emergency Room isn't as alarming as it is just uneasy and concerning. My sister was born 25 years ago with a rare form of Muscular Dystrophy called Nemoline Myopathy, and my mom was just recently diagnosed with Left Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and has had other scares in the last year or two, as well.

I could list to you all the things that them being in the hospital has prevented our family from doing, or the amount of worry it has caused us. I remember missing my first play in the Fourth Grade when they thought they were going to have to do heart surgery on my sister, taking homecoming pictures in the lobby on the first floor of the hospital my Junior year, or the time I got an alarming call while at breakfast with friends on my last day of high school that my mom's heart had stopped. These are just a few examples.

I can recall the amount of times in our family's situation that you tell people that everything will be okay and God has a plan when it just doesn't feel that way, and the amount of times you tell your friends it will all work out and you are doing fine because there really just isn't anything else to say. Man, it is so disheartening when there is nothing else to say.

But here's the thing: This is not what I focus on in these times. This is not what defines me, or defines my mother, sister, or other family members. An illness or diagnosis is just that: it doesn't have to be something that limits you as a person or family. It certainly doesn't have to be the thing that breaks your faith or causes you to have a negative outlook on life, either.

While there can be a lot of negatives to having "ill" family members, I am proud to come from a family different from many others- one who has pushed me to strive in my faith. I can also list just some of the amazing things I have experienced while waiting for my family to feel better:

1. I have gotten REALLY good at the card game, UNO.
2. I have finished a ton of books in the waiting rooms where they don't allow cell phones.
3. I have been able to pray with other families in the emergency room, holding each other while waiting for results on their loved ones.
4. Cafeteria cheesy fries. I don't even have to explain this one.
5. I get to see all of my family in one room, getting along and in happy spirits to lift the mood of whoever is in the hospital bed.
6. I have been able to witness pregnant women come in and come out of the hospital with their brand new bundle of joy.
7. The hospital is right next to campus, and has served as a convenient napping place between classes.
8. Nothing in my life, or my family's lives, is taken for granted.
9. I have been able to witness miracles happen.
10. I am a more humble and hopeful person because of these experiences.

When you have a family like mine, you tend to live on the brighter side of things. It is where your thoughts reside, and where all of the advice you pass off to others comes from. It is where the core of your very being finds peace, and it is the place where you shine out the brightest in times of trouble.

Where most people look at me and my family as though we have some how gotten the short end of the stick, I just smile because I know we have been so very blessed to have these experiences that have just enhanced us as people and as a big family. I see your stares at us as we walk in public, or the pity you may hide when we ask for prayers on social media when someone is sick. All of this is okay, and it is nothing out of the norm, but please know we are so much more than just a hospital room number or the most recent procedure that has been done.

God wouldn't allow the hardest battles to go to you unless He knew you could handle them, and He walks with you every single step of the way.