Thankful

Every November I read the daily “Today I’m thankful for…” posts of my Facebook friends and am inspired by them, thinking “Maybe next year I will get my poop in a group and post my own.”

This year is no different.  I want to, I really do, but… well… allow me to sing you the song of my people:  “Aint nobody got time for that!”  (Sung in the key of “R”, of course.)

All singing aside, I truly am thankful.  Here’s why:

• I am the last one to bed every night and first one up every morning, queen of the realm and boss of all things domestic and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
• At home I am always within 5 feet of at least one huge poodle, but usually all three curly, slimy, barking, cat-chasing, smelly, snoring, disobedient, burping, bed-chewing beasts who make me laugh every minute of every hour of every day.
• When I’m not home I am most likely in a car with at least one delightful Susschild, but sometimes all three.  I get to witness all of them become who they are meant to be.  God’s plan fulfilled before my eyes in these three kind, smart, humble, owners of my heart. I sometimes worry that they will figure out what a goon I really am and trade me for a bag of magic beans.  That worry makes every minute I spend with them all the more precious.
• God has blessed me with two brilliant, funny, supportive, amazing parents from whom I have learned more than I could have ever learned on my own.  They passed their faith to me and I embrace it with every fiber of my being.  Despite my selfishness, they love me and they tell me every single day.  I would not be who I am, nor would I have the life I have if God hadn’t placed me in their care.  They are the reason I am me.  Depending on your opinion of me you can thank them or shoot them in the face with a bazooka.
• I am thankful for the generous, funny, tender, sweet woman who raised my husband and is now trapped in-between here and heaven.  Although Alzheimer’s has taken most of her away from us and her brain and her body are atrophied, I am thankful that she is close and that every now and then, although farther and farther apart, I can get a laugh or a smile from her and see the real Sue, if for only a second.
• I’m married to the sweetest, most hard-working man, whose sacrifices allow me to live this magical life, surrounded by poodles and Grandpeeps and Susschildren.  I have a hand to hold and a reason to live.  This man.  Coincidence that I met him on the ninth day of a St. Anthony (he finds things) novena?  Nope.  I didn’t ask St. Anthony for much, only every tiny detail: hair color, eye color, facial features, height, intelligent, college student, preferably an engineering major, who thought I was all that and a bag of potato chips.  He was, and continues to be, an answer to my prayers.  He knows everything about me, all my faults and weaknesses and he still choses me on a daily basis.  After almost 27 years of marriage I still marvel that this is really happening.  He is my happily ever after.
• Sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, cousins who I promoted to sisters, nieces, nephews are all the accoutrement that membership in a large, crazy, wonderful family provides.  I’m part of a tapestry, part of a story.  These are the first friends, the ones who HAD to play with me, on account-a we swim in the same gene pool.  An extended family is a gift that can so easily be taken for granted.
• The close friends who I know will rush to my side when they hear “Help! We’re losing her, people! Push 50cc of Pinot” or “Help! Starbucks STAT!” or “Help! Nosebleed!” or “Help! My kitchen is over-run with puppies!” or any of the other eleventy billion mental, physical or imaginary emergencies I can (and have) come up with.  I have heard it said that friends are the family we choose, which in no way diminishes our biological family but adds to  it, another layer to keep us warm.  There are also those who are echoes in my heart but I don’t see very often.  When we do meet, it is as if no time has passed and there are no awkward silences.
• Then there are all the people who have wandered in and/or out of my life over these 51+ years, for whom I am thankful, some for the joy they brought into my life for a season and some for the lessons they taught me right before the screen door hit them on the backside.   Each one is a blessing.
• I once read that if there was only ever one person in all of creation and that one person was in need of a Savior, Christ would still have endured the cross for one.  ANY one of us.  This is how much He loves each of us.  He loves us and wants us with him.   He cares enough about each one of us to put a different fingerprint on every finger ever, with no repeats.  He has a plan and a path for each of us and like our fingerprints, no two are the same.  It is up to us to find our path and to move forward.  Move toward Him.  I am thankful that He loves me and that he forgives me for all I am not.

All I ever wanted is to love and to be loved.  I have all I could ever imagine wanting.  I do not deserve this life and yet here I am.

Grateful.

So very grateful.