Giving Thanks.

I am not a huge fan of Thanksgiving. I don't think it's very nice to celebrate the fact that we basically bamboozled the Native Americans into thinking we were legit and then totally flipped the script and did horrible things to them. However, I am totally into the thought of having a day that we all celebrate the things that we have in life that are deserving of thanks. I guess that what I mean to say is that I see this day as a day of giving thanks and I try to disregard the historical aspect of the holiday.

This year, giving thanks was kind of difficult. I am 1600 miles away from my family and my close friends, I just had a miscarriage, I have the persistent sinus infection from hell, I am overweight and really self conscious, and we are having financial problems of epic proportions. The real kickers are the miscarriage, the distance, and the money. All of these things combined caused me to wake up this morning feeling rather "blah."

However, the Lord up above must have sensed my hesitation because although I woke up feeling like an elephant was sitting on my sinus cavity, a series of wonderful things happened. First, my darling husband realized that my sinuses were troubling me and he allowed me to sleep in. I got roughly 2 extra hours due to his awesomeness. Then, as I was waking up and rolling around and trying to will myself out of bed, I heard the sounds of my family. They were laughing, making animal noises, and chattering. I immediately felt like I wanted to jump out of bed and get in on the fun. Instead, I slowly hobbled downstairs while holding pressure to my aching sinus cavity. Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, I realized that I could smell chocolate cake. I meandered into the kitchen to find that Dave had made the Black Forest Trifle that I had been planning on making today. Of course, in typical male fashion, it looks like a choco-cherry bomb went off in my kitchen. But it really is the thought that counts. He then told me to sit down, brought me a glass of water so that I could take my vitamins and the Sudafed that has been my best friend lately, and a cup of coffee.

As I was sitting here, drinking my coffee and massaging my sinus, I realized that sometimes things get crappy. But usually, they get better. And even when things are crappy, there is always something to be thankful for. In my case, the best things in my life are free, healthy, happy, and precious. And they don't care if I'm broke. They don't care that my uterus recently failed me. And even though we are far away from everyone else, we do have each other. I have a houseful of amazing and no matter how many cloudy days I have, they will always be my sunshine. I should probably not have hesitated this morning, because there is always something to be thankful for.