Thankful Thursday - Small Graces

My Thankful Thursday this week is not going to be in traditional list form. I hope that Sonya at Truth for the Journey will let me slide! I'm pretty sure I'll get at least five things..

Today, I'm especially grateful for small graces. I know that I am a daughter of the King of Kings and that God loves me but occasionally, especially when I'm hurting, I need to be reminded.

I am grateful that Tatyana's heart cath went well. She was feeling a teeny bit better and ate a bit of dinner tonight. I am grateful that God gave me the opportunity to be there and sit with Chantelle this morning. While I was there, JT, Tatyana's dad, bought me a Pepsi. He didn't have to and it was a small thing for which I am grateful.

At the hospital, I had the opportunity to check-in and visit with the nurses and other staff whom we met while on Seth's journey. I'm always blessed by the hugs and warm smiles we get when up on the floor. It's a small grace that often feels larger!

Upon leaving the hospital today, I had no money for parking and the ATM was broken. I was given some parking validation stickers but the parking attendant said they were not valid. In the middle of explaining our situation to the parking attendant, rummaging through my purse, I DID find $5 and the parking attendant just waved me through anyway. (Yes, I told her I'd found the money to pay). It was a small grace.

I took the kids up to our local library this evening. I spent 45 minutes looking for our library cards before I gave up and decided we'd ask for replacements. The librarian was concerned that if they were JUST misplaced, we would waste the $2 replacement fee (per card). I told her that I was sure they WERE just misplaced. (I changed out wallets shortly after Seth went to Heaven and can't find the old one right now). But, I said, we lost a child in October and there's a good chance I'll never find them among the piles of stuff. I did NOT tell her for sympathy. It's just the truth of our situation. She waived the fees. Another small grace.

And finally, there's this:



Someone left a balloon at Seth's marker on Memorial Day. It wasn't us. I just tonight found out who it was. Remember Mary and baby N? The baby they lost is at the same cemetery as Seth and her family left the balloon.. A small grace. "Mary" sent me a note tonight, letting me know it was them, and saying that their family grieves with us. I know that to be true and I'm VERY grateful for her presence in my life.

And I think now is a good time to share. "Baby N"? The N stands for Nehemiah which means God's comfort. I am SO thankful for God's COMFORT!

Thankful Thursday - May 14, 2009

Another Thankful Thursday. I'm probably going to sound repetitive but I'm churning this out quick today as we've got lots to do. Here goes:

1. I am thankful for my husband. I really am. Sure, we have our differences but this morning he let me go back to bed (I"m coming down with something I think). When he left this afternoon for work, he hollered back into the house "Thank you, Kathryn" and I said "for what?" and he said "for everything!". How sweet is that?

2. I am thankful for Sean, Cary, and Kayleigh for bringing bits of joy into my life everyday! (As mentioned in yesterday's post, and other places)

3. I am thankful for enough food to eat, clothes to wear and a house to sleep, work, play and live in!

4. I am thankful that we live in such a great country. I may not always agree with you (generic you) or our political leaders but I have the freedom to disagree! And to work where and how I can and to worship as I desire. God Bless America!

5. I am thankful for our Heavenly Father who makes all of the above things possible! "Every good thing comes from above".

Thankful Thursday - May 7, 2009

I haven't done Thankful Thursday for awhile. (What's that? You've noticed? Yeah.. sorry 'bout that). I"m slowly trying to get back into things and sharing my gratitude and gratefulness for God's greatfulness is a GOOD thing. (Ack, I think I just channeled Martha Stewart). And so, without further ado, in no specific order:

1. I am SO grateful for my husband. Leland is walking with the Lord and he makes such an awesome effort to be a great dad, husband, partner. I was out of the house this morning and came home, after Leland had left for work, to discover he had vacuumed the living room and cleaned the bathroom. How great is that??

2 I am thankful for my kids. I really am. Sure, they can push my buttons and make me want to spin my head around, but they bring such joy and blessing into my life!

3. I am thankful for my parents. Both of them. But especially since Mother's Day is coming up, I want to give a shout out to my mom!! She has been such a huge blessing to my family. I'm still so grateful for the time she came and stayed with the "big kids" while Seth was in the hospital..

4. I am thankful for a God who calls us to do things for His glory. Granted, it may be out of my comfort zone (oh yeah.) but God doesn't call me to be comfortable, He calls me to be obedient. I've been a slow learner but it might finally be starting to sink in... Thank you, Lord.

5. Most importantly, (for today) I'm grateful for God's grace. I first shared this line of thought way back in December in this post. I think it rings even more true today. I am fully aware that most mothers would say their greatest fear is losing a child. I was once one of those mothers. One of the things I struggle with is the perception (that I have) that other moms are looking at me, wondering how I'm doing "so well" when they "know" that if they lost a child they would just go to bed and stay there. It would be their worst nightmare. I once felt that way. But God's grace is sufficient and all we need. I've recently come to the conclusion that the old saying "God never gives you more than you can handle" is a crock. I believe God often gives us more than we can handle. On our own. The whole point is to lean into God. To depend on Him and require His help. How would we even begin to do that if WE could handle it?

And so, as I continue to walk this path that has turned out to be my life as I now know it, I am grateful for God's grace. I am BLESSED beyond measure to know that I do NOT EVER have to handle the difficculties of life on my own, regardless of how big or small they are!

Thankful Thursday - March 19, 2009

I know it's late in the day, but I'm going to give Thankful Thursday, as hosted by Truth 4 the Journey a shot!

The five things I'm thankful for today.

1. I"m thankful for a patient kind husband. Truly he is. He doesn't complain (much) when I get crabby, sad or depressed... He's been SUPER understanding about my inability to get motivated to get things done. I possess that in general, especially in regards to house stuff, but more lately since Seth.

2. I'm thankful to have an environment I am mostly comfortable in. Our home. Our church family. Our community. I had a great vacation (and I wish the weather here were better right now) but if absence makes the heart grow fonder, it doesn't take much time away to make me grateful for home.

3. I"m thankful for great friends. Friends who do things like THIS for me. Yep, I have some truly amazing firends, most of them sisters in Christ. I am a blessed woman.

4. I'm SO thankful for God's blessings and provision. For how REAL He provides in our lives. I haven't shared as much about our Disney trip as I intend to (still coming) but God showed up in AMAZING ways. AMAZING. AWESOME ways. At least once a day (intentionally nad that I remember, I'm sure it was more than that), I looked heavenward and thanked God for His grace.

5. I'm thankful, SO thankful, for Sean and Cary and Kayleigh. For the joy and treasure they bring into our lives, MY life, EVERY single day. They are such amazing kids. There are so many things I always want to remember. The way Kayleigh said "Mickey not scary" after she saw him the first time. (And this was after weeks of "This one scare me (Mickey), I go see THIS one (Minnie)"). Sean and I riding Space Mountain for the first time together and getting off saying "THAT WAS SO AWESOME." Cary, who so enjoyed his time with Alex (son of a friend of mine whom we met at Disneyland), that he wanted to know when he'd see Alex again before he wanted to know when we'd be back at Disneyland.

Well, there! I like Thankful Thursday. That's a pretty impressive list, really. Thank you, Lord, for putting these things in my life. For BEING IN my life.

Thankful Thursday

It's been a rough week. I worked a couple of extra days and the weathers been yucky and it's just been hard. It's late but I want to do Thankful Thursday. I need the change of focus. So, here we go!

1. I am grateful I have a job. I work the two days a week that Leland is home so we don't have to worry about childcare. I won't go into the whole story but just landing the job was clearly from God and I'm grateful.

2. I am grateful Leland has a job! In this recession and difficult time, we know many people who have lost jobs or had hours slashed. I thank God that we haven't had to worry about that (yet).

3. I sm thankful to live where we do, in a country of such convenience. Ther are MANY places in the world where a person can NOT run down to the corner grocery store and pick up milk and bread. And if the corner grocery store exists, there are many places where people work DAYS to be able to afford milk and bread!

4. I am thankful for chocolate. Today was one of those days and a little bit of chocolate, a mocha, etc. was a lovely pick me up.

5. I am grateful for BloggerVille. I've "met" some good friends and been exposed to some amazing women. There's a pretty impressive community out there of pretty impressive gals!

Oh, there we are! That wasn't as hard as I thought it would be (although it DID take some effort). Thanks for joining me. Click the button above to find other Thankful Thursdays!

Thankul Thursday 1/1/09 AND #1

Well it seems appropriate to have my first Thankful Thursday ever also be the first day of a brand new year. Happy New Year! These are the things I'm thankful for as we enter 2009.

1. I'm thankful for Seth. It took me awhile to get there, and I still have days when I don't understand why (I never understand why). But for awhile after losing him, I really struggled with wanting to erase that he'd ever happened, his time here just seemed so short. I'm grateful for the time we did have to love on him, for the lessons we're still learning because of him and for the people God brought into my life through our time with Seth.

2. I'm thankful for Sean, Cary & Kayleigh. I know that if I didn't have them when we lost Seth, I'd have still had the Lord. But every day I have a reason to get out of bed as Kayleigh is calling out "I go pee... I GO PEE" and Cary is demanding to be fed. (Sean's pretty self sufficient in the am, as long as he's got NFL network or PS3 he's good!)

3. I'm thankful for our families. We would have had a much more difficult time managing everything with Seth over the last year without the help of my mom. When push came to shove, my sister, my mom & my dad, all left their homes & basically their lives, and came to help us. I don't think I express that gratitude often enough.

4. I'm thankful for our church family. We are so incredibly blessed to be in fellowship with a group of people who are trying to truly love as Christ commanded. I was going to start thanking specific people except every time I came up with one I thought "Oh, then I also have to thank so & so" and we'll be here all day if I start that! I'm sure they know who they are but I'm extremely thankful for their willingness to come alongside us during an extremely difficult time, even if it wasn't convenient or easy for them.

5. I'm SO thankful for the Lord in my life. The Saviour OF my life. All the previous things I've listed are gifts from Him. How amazing that I am loved that much just by being. Thank you, Lord,for this journey but mostly, thank you for Your presence on this road.

And there we are! You can check out other Thankful Thursdays by clicking on the button at the top of this post. (This was good for me. I hope I can manage this every week.)