Thanksgiving

Yesterday was truly the best Thanksgiving I have ever had.  This year, Carla and I hosted both of our families at our house.  Carla was amazing! Carla loves a holiday and she loves to cook.  So once it was decided that Thanksgiving was going to be at our house this year, she kicked it into high gear! There were lists, there was a timeline, there were recipes saved on the computer, it was incredible.  And everything turned out so beautifully.  I was beyond impressed and beyond thankful.

So yesterday afternoon, my family and a portion of Carla's family all sat around our dining room table.  As I looked around the table, all I could feel was thankful.  And I couldn't help but think about the past year.  Yes, I have struggled through the adoption process. Yes, my dad was sick.  Yes, we lost beloved family members.  But none of that is what I thought about.  Instead, I thought about how lucky I am that my incredible father battled his way back from such illness and is now in a wonderfully healthy place and is able to enjoy life and enjoy our family and be there for all of our celebrations.  I thought about how lucky I am that I have the most wonderful and supportive family, with an adorable little nephew who entertained all of us until he passed out asleep upstairs from too much fun. I thought about how lucky I am to have a mother who has been exhausted beyond belief by the year that has passed, but somehow finds a way to keep being there for the rest of us and found a way to get herself to Thanksgiving lunch with a smile on her face and love to give to everyone. I thought about how lucky I am to have a sister that is also a best friend and who provides me with immeasurable support and love.  I thought about how lucky I am to be able to host our family, in our home that I am so proud of. I thought about how incredibly lucky I am to have married a woman who will stay up until midnight after working a full day and then get up at 6:00 the next morning just to make us all a Thanksgiving meal filled with an incredible amount of love.  I thought about how lucky I am that one day, hopefully in the not too distant future, I will be able to be a mom with this incredible woman to an incredible child and we will get to spend all of our future Thanksgivings together as a family of three.

And then I just felt really lucky.  While things have been, and will continue to be, hard, I am so lucky.  There is so much in my life to be Thankful for and I was reminded of all of it yesterday.  And when I woke up this morning, there were all the leftovers.  Yes, there is a fridge full of leftover stuffing, turkey, potatoes, and pie, but there are also these leftover feelings of gratitude deep in my heart.