This is my daughter, Elise. She is 9 years old. She loves to play soccer. Paint and draw. Read. She loves to dance and sing. Making her little brothers laugh. The colour green. Roller-coasters and waterslides. This Halloween she dressed up as Hermoine from Harry Potter. She's a girly-girl with a tough side... the absolute best of both worlds.
She makes me laugh. Loves everyone she's ever met. Blows me away with how smart she is. She has the innate ability to drive me bananas, but at the same time; I am so very proud the be her Mom. And today, she makes me thankful.
Without today, Elise would not be alive. If it wasn't for today, I would have had to say goodbye to my first-born over 8 years ago. If today had never happened, this would be one of the last pictures I have of my daughter...
During a month that is supposed to be filled with thanks, I am most thankful for today, November 14.
Because on this day, in 1891, a baby boy was born in a small farm house in Ontario, Canada. He would grow up and make an astonishing discovery that would save my daughter's life 119 years later. Not just the life of my daughter, but the lives of countless others too.
Because in addition to everything I wrote about her above, Elise also has type 1 diabetes. Her body NEEDS insulin to survive, but no longer produces it.
It was nothing she did. Or didn't do.
Nothing she ate. Or didn't eat.
There is no cure. No special diet. No secret spice. There isn't a bark that grows on a tree that can be brewed into a tea.
But there is insulin.
Today, I don't have to watch my daughter literally starve to death because of a faulty pancreas. And that is why I am thankful for today, the birthday of Dr. Fredrick Banting; inventor of insulin.
He saved my daughter's life.
