Post of Thanksgiving

Let's start out with the ugly truth:  The last two months have been hard.  Really, really hard.  I started back to college which has been a strain on my already limited patience.  My current classwork is not hard but it is time consuming, and, at times, tedious.  I was coping though.  Michael has been excellent about picking up the slack and we were starting to get used to a new normal.

Then his aunt died unexpectedly.  We were saddened but found peace at her funeral.  Sam was especially naughty during the funeral so Michael and I decided I would take the kids home and he would go to the interment.  He came home an hour later and I was surprised to see him so soon.  He told me there was a terrible accident while people were getting ready to go.   Nine people were injured and taken to the hospital after one of the funeral goer's car drove into the crowd waiting in front of the church.  We didn't know what was going to happen to a couple of the people hit but the families were blessed.  Two months later, a couple of people are still dealing with injuries related to the crash but it could have been much, much worse.  We are grateful for all the miracles that prevented worse injuries that day.

Two weeks later I drove to Havre, Montanta to attend my niece's wedding.  I drove over 1500 miles in three days with my sister and divorced parents.  It was the first time I've ever been apart from every member of my family at the same time for any length of time.  I was so relieved to get home.  I had no idea how much I would miss them all.  Plus I still had to figure out how to get all my course work done in time.

About four weeks ago my dear niece got in a car accident on the way to school.  I got a call from my crying sister telling me she was with a cop on the way to the hospital.  She didn't know what to expect.  Michael rushed home from work so I could go to the hospital and meet her.  Any other week I would have dragged the kids with me and had someone meet me to retrieve them from the hospital, but we were in the middle of chicken pox, and as badly as I needed to go to the hospital I didn't want to infect already sick people with more illness.  By the time I arrived my niece had regained consciousness but was heavily drugged as they stitched her face back together.  She was in the hospital for several days with scheduled physical, occupational and cognitive therapy.  My heart was breaking for my sister and my niece.  I love that girl so much.  I often tell my sister there was a mistake and Aubrey was supposed to be mine.

At this point all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and give up.  Life was throwing too much crap at me and I was ready to cry 'uncle'.  But...kids still needed fed, schoolwork (mine and theirs) still had to be completed, and life was still going on.  And it has gotten better.  Life has gone on.  By the time Thanksgiving rolled around I realized just how thankful I truly am.

I'm thankful to my brother (but mostly his wife) for hosting Thanksgiving each year because there is no way we could fit everyone and the food in my house.

I'm thankful for cousin fun while playing "Operation".

I thankful for this gorgeous girl who has no idea how cute she really is.

And this boy who won't let us take a decent picture of him.  I love him too.

 

I am truly thankful for this girl.  This is my Aubrey.  She was at Thanksgiving acting exactly as sassy as we've come to expect.  She has been back to school for a couple of weeks now.  Yesterday she was completely medically cleared, which means she can drive again as well.  Not sure how thankful I am for that. 

I'm also thankful for the man who takes all these pictures.  I didn't know I was getting a family photographer when I married him but I'm not complaining.  If it were left up to me there would probably be about four fuzzy pictures of each kid per year.

This may have been a hard autumn but I've also realized how much I truly have to be thankful for.  My life is blessed.