I have not posted to my blog in months and felt it was time to sit down and write again.  Almost a year has gone by and I have no clue where it went!  It's November and Thankgiving is right around the corner.  So many on Facebook are listing something they are thankful for every day and it has made me think about the things I am thankful for.

Our family faced a rough patch again and we think that every time we are in one that it will be the last.  We know it isn't true, but is nice to try to think about.  Life is hard and there are reasons for it being difficult; we aren't supposed to question WHY?

Over the past year we have become foster parents, watched our boy start to turn into a wonderful young man, felt the excitement of having our family grow and felt the pain of goodbye.  Our house is more of a home; adding 3 more bedrooms and a nice big family room helps! We bought a minivan after swearing we would NEVER own one, but we needed the room if we were fostering kiddos.  I watched the 12th anniversary of my dad's death and 2nd anniversary of my mom's death march by and felt myself looking back on where the time has gone.  That baby boy I held in my arms years ago is now an eigth grader!  I have looked back at what I have and what I am thankful for.

1.  I am thankful I am allowed to pray and believe in God.
2. I am thankful for my grandparents.  They taught me how to love and treat others.
3.  I am thankful for my dad.  He taught me you can give of youself without having to look for that pat on the back or approval.
4.  I am thankful for my mom.  She taught me so many things and was talented.  She taught me that no matter how hard life is  to just "pull up your big girl panties and deal with it!"
5.  I am thankful for my family.  I am happy to wake up with someone snoring beside me no matter how much he thinks it drives me crazy.  I am not alone in life.
6.  I am thankful to have my son.  He is my life and he has taught me what strength and love really is.
7.  I am thankful to be able to be a parent.  It has been a blessing to bring a child into the world and call my own.  I have also learned I am very capable of loving another child that is not mine and treat them as they are mine.
8.  I am thankful for my friends.  They hold me up when I am not strong and remind me that we are all in this life together.
9.  I am thankful for strangers who come up to me and smile and say hi.  Some days are hard and a smile is quite contagious.
10.  I am thankful for being allowed to have failure in my life.  How else can I learn from my mistakes or feel disappointment.  Failure has been a great teacher and a reminder that life isn't always perfect.
11.  I am thankful for being taught humility.
12.  I am thankful for being alive.
13.  I am thankful to have enemies--they remind me of how not to treat other people.
14.  I am thankful for the people that have caused me pain or said hurtful things to me.  It forces me to look within myself to see if I need to change.
15.  I am thankful that I am free to write my thoughts down.

I have so much to be thankful for and feel very blessed.  Tonight I will be able to put a good meal on the table, wrap in a warm blanket and go to sleep in a cozy warm bed.  After starting foster care classes this past spring, we realized how blessed we truly are.  We don't think about running out of food, because we can just go to the store.  We don't worry about staying warm, because we can just put on another layer or turn the heat up.   We have so much when others have very little. 

The year away from blogging has been a year of learning for me.  I didn't realize how much I had in my life until I was forced to sit down and really look at it.  I have everything I could ever need and then some.