I was just catching up on some blogs this morning and read several posts along the Thanksgiving theme. I suppose this is part of the great conspiracy to move Thanksgiving up to this week. But as I’ve read it’s got me thinking about things and knowing I’ll be leaving town tomorrow I wanted to take a moment to share those thoughts.

When my daughter was about 2 and 1/2 she hit a wonderful stage of comprehending things around her and calling them to attention. At night we’d hear her go on for easily 10-15 minutes with a prayer that went something like this:

“Heavenly Father, thank you my bed. Thank you my house. Thank you my blanket. Thank you my milk. Thank you my mom. Thank you my dad. Thank you my room. Thank you my shoes. Thank you my window. Thank you my sky. Thank you my door. Thank you my…..”

The innocence from those simple words of thanks were always welcome to mom and dad’s ears. And it caused us to reflect on many of those little details that we tend to skip over or generalize ourselves.

About 6 years ago I had the opportunity to really understand how much I’d taken for granted with my health. I note the details now, the ability to walk, the ability to breathe without pain, the ability to control my muscles without shaking, the strength to move at all, and above all the ability to feel pain. Yes, that’s an odd one I know but you know what, one day in my self complaint mode about the intense head pain I was experiencing it dawned on me that the option of not feeling pain could mean paralysis and as weird as things had been that was certainly not a possibility off the radar for me. So I was thankful for the pain because it meant I could still feel.

I’m grateful for the pain of infertility which lead me to paths of growth and love I couldn’t have known otherwise. I’m grateful that it took me to the right place at the right time to be where someone needed me to be, just when they needed me to be there. I’m grateful that those people in my life endured their own trials and pain to be where I needed them to be when I needed them too. I understand so well now the truth that sometimes our greatest trial can be another’s greatest blessing.

I’m grateful that at the same time I nearly lost all my health and life that we lost our business and revenue. While I’m not glad my husband and I had to go through so much hard stuff all at the same time, I’m supremely grateful that we could learn those tough lessons while we are still so young and that it happened in such a complete and all encompassing way to require dealing with it head on. Because of those experiences, today I have a completely new look and appreciation for self-reliance and financial blessings, I will never view things the same or trick myself into believing that things are really better than they are. I’m grateful that my son and his adoption came to us at this most ill-prepared and seemingly impossible time of our lives because it taught me that all things are possible. It confirmed my personal belief and knowledge that adoption was not about us finding our children but rather about them finding us and when that happened nothing could keep us from making it happen.

So today I pause on the details so often missed in our thoughts of gratitude. With so much to be grateful for it’s amazing that I ever find anything to complain about. It’s true that the surest way to pick yourself up is to stop long enough to count your blessings…EVERY blessing. It is amazing to see how much you have when you take the time to look.

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