Giving Thanks...

It seems like I spend so much time focusing on the trials and struggles and small stresses of everyday life, that it's easy to overlook all the many joys I experience each day.

Today I am so glad to have a day to help me remember to focus on the abundance of blessings in my life.

I am thankful for my husband. I have leaned on him this past year more than ever before, and he has been my strength and my faith as I've struggled to just get through. He doesn't ever condemn me for my shortcomings and is patient with me as I work through them. I always feel like he sees me as a better and more beautiful person, inside and out, than I actually am.

My children are the greatest blessings I will ever have in this life. I marvel at the ability we have to love someone so completely. They are everything to me - each one of them more special and unique and wonderful than I ever could have imagined. A day never goes by where I don't have at least a moment that it hits me how incredibly blessed I am to be surrounded by these amazing little girls. I am SO thankful to be a mother. It's all I've ever really wanted - and it has already surpassed my expectations.

I am thankful for a loving and supportive family. My parents, Dennis' mom, my grandparents, and even some cousins have all taken time out of their busy lives to help me this year. While I was ill they watched children, helped me clean, brought me meals, sent letters of encouragement, and made me laugh. They have all gone out of their way to show me and my family how much they love us. We are surrounded by love and concern and support.

I have some amazing friends. I have friends I can bare my soul to and cry with, and I have friends that help me forget my worries and make me laugh uncontrollably. I have friends that share my love for music and friends that teach me to love new things. It has been a year of finding out who my real friends are, and even finding out who I really am, and I've realized that I have been very blessed to have a variety of people in my life that all serve to make it rich and fun and unpredictable. I love my friends. I need my friends.

I am thankful for opportunities to help others and to learn from them. I am thankful to have met a lot of people this year that I look up to and admire. I am thankful to be loved even when I'm acting unloveable. I'm thankful for growth even when painful. I'm thankful for a Heavenly Father who stays near even when I pull away - and who is always waiting to forgive me and accept me for the imperfect, immature person that I am. I'm thankful for the opportunity to do a little better and be a little better than I have been in the past.

I love my life and the people in it. I could not ask for more.