How can I say thanks
For all the things You’ve done for me?
Things so undeserved
Yet You gave to prove Your love to me
The voices of a million angels
Could not express my gratitude
All that I am
And ever hope to be
I owe it all to Thee
To God be the glory
To God be the glory
To God be the glory
For the things He has done
— “My Tribute (To God Be the Glory),” by Andraé Crouch
This is a song to God — one of my favorites of all time — but tonight I am singing it to Jim and Julie Krawczynski. I need to publicly thank them for what they have done, and continue to do, for my family.
I attempted three love notes tonight for my sweet ones, and not one of them made it past WordPress. I think it’s because God knew I needed to write a thank you note to someone first. And maybe, in the writing of it, it will help you think of the people in your own life who need thanking.
I love that saying: “If the only prayer you ever said in your whole life was ‘thank you,’ that would be enough.”
When Sheldon was about ten or eleven, and his father had left, I was blessed that Julie Krawczynski introduced him to dance — right alongside her own boys — at her studio, Julie’s School of Dance. She had no idea, and neither did I, just how talented Sheldon was. There, he found himself. He found a kind of therapy for a pain he did not yet know how to carry.
When his father left, it came as a surprise — and not the good kind. Sheldon was at the age where the presence, or the absence, of a father is life-altering.
And as if that weren’t enough, shortly after, I was diagnosed with a brain disorder that caused up to a hundred seizures a day and left me in intolerable pain. I was a schoolteacher with no child support and little money — for the surgery, or for a life without the ability to work.
Julie and Jim jumped right in. I don’t think I even had to finish my sentence. They gladly signed the paperwork to become Sheldon’s legal guardians, because I could not care for him at the time. They took him into their home as though he were one of their own. If their kids got in trouble, so did he. If their kids got love, so did he. And what he also got was a father figure in Jim. A mama cannot replace a daddy at that time of life — and Jim manned up and did just that. Julie ran a tight ship; she was better at discipline than I ever was.
When a man leaves his home and does not take care of his family, it is a gift beyond measure when another man steps up. Jim has loved my son — and then Scotty, too.
That is simply who Jim and Julie are. They have always made room for as many kids, and as many animals, as needed love — there was always room for one more.
Jim is sick right now. Very sick. We had hoped his love for my boys, and his boys, and all his grands would go on and on — and it will, but it looks different now. We know God will take him home soon. Before he does, I want the world to know what Jim and Julie Krawczynski have done for my family.
Right now my boys are surrounded on all sides by love — Jim and Julie, James and Mell, and Joseph and Ashley. I am so thankful for what they have done in my life.
It is a sad thing that one person’s irresponsibility becomes another person’s responsibility. But I think Jim and Julie always saw it differently — as simply one more to love. And that is exactly what they have done.
I am so thankful that these past few years Julie and Jim have gotten to enjoy each other and their family. They have taken the art of giving to a whole new level. And because of that love, I will be forever singing; How can I say thanks for all the things You have done for me????
And Jim — give my sweet husband a big old hug when you get there!!! We will keep all the love going down here, and I’ll still have Julie in charge of the discipline.
Thanks be to God for this life and all the people who make it worth the living!!
Karen Key Smith
Ps. Our sweet Jim left this earth July 25th, but this was written before so that he and Julie would know how very grateful I am for them. God has been so gracious to gift me with the best humans!!!
