Thank You

Thanksgiving Eve 2009 finds me lying in bed in my best friend’s basement, a friend who was practically a stranger just two years ago. I’m lying in this bed minus the mate I thought I would have for life, and without my two babies, because I now have to share them with said “life-long mate” on the holidays. As I lie here there is plenty to worry about; no child support, no money for Christmas, bills due, etc., and, if I wanted to, there would even be plenty to cry about, and yet I’m going to try for thankfulness rather than angst and pain.

I have so much to be thankful for. I was blessed with two amazing women at just the moment I most needed them 18 months ago, and now those two, who have become my best friends, all live within 30 minutes of me, clear on the other side of the state where they never planned on living. We can quickly get together for dinner and a movie and some therapy among friends, which we all desperately need. I have a family; not just my girls, but also a family God has given me in the form of friends, both old and new. I have found the most amazing church home, full of Godly, faithful, committed people who have taken me in and, once again, demonstrated Christ’s love for me. I am finally at a place in my life where I can comfortably get involved in my church family. I have a great job teaching a grade I love, with kids I love, and with awesomely amazing coworkers, some of whom are becoming close friends of mine. I have my girls, my amazing daughters, who I am more than blessed with; it is such an honor to think that God has entrusted them to me. And I have escaped…not only the physical place where I felt so trapped, but also the mental and emotional traps I could so easily have fallen into during the bumpy patches. I haven’t totally arrived, but who of us has? I am free of the darkest places I have existed, and that is saying much.

I am thankful for all of this, and I am thankful for you. Chances are, if you are reading this, you have touched my life in some way. You may not think you’ve done anything all that fancy, but I guarantee you have! Sometimes all it takes is a kind word or an “atta girl” to keep me going, and there are those among you who, without knowing, have demonstrated Christ’s love through your caring. Some of you may even have saved my life with your kind words, your hugs, or your pats on the back. Thanks for loving me enough to do that!

My prayer for you, on this coming day of thanks, is that you will find the thankful things in your life, no matter what your circumstances may be. Nothing is impossible with God! Love to all of you!

~ by Jenn on November 27, 2008.