Feeling Thankful

These days I wake up and go to bed with one major thought: Thank You World.

For the first time in a long time I feel like I am exactly where I am supposed to be. John and I have the children we have hoped for since June of 2004, we are close to family, we have an amazing piece of property, we own a business helping people garden which is one of our passions, and I am so lucky to be in the public service of teaching kids.

All in all I feel like I have won the lotter in that my life has come together. I know there are bumps yet to come and loose ends to tie up, but all in all we worked really hard for these things, dreamed of these things, and here they are.

Isaac has come leaps and bounds these last three months. Emerson is acting out a lot, but I have confidence that his behavior will improve along with Isaac's.

The house could not be better for all of us. Today I cleared paths, weeded and pruned my fruit trees. It felt wonderful. All the while the boys were racing cars up and down the driveway, picking up pretty things to put in their "Jars of Wonder" and John was setting up the Tee Pee we acquired yesterday from one of Mom's neighbors. I finally feel at home in Alabama because this property is so us.

Looking at all of it I also am so thankful for my past, for without it, (as treacherous as it sometimes was) I could not be here. If we did not have such a friend as Larry McGraw in Oregon to teach us about gardening and fruit trees, I doubt we would have our business or have been drawn so much to our property. If we had not been infertile, I am sad to say our path would have been much more strait, but so much less fulfilling. If our second Kaz journey had not been so abruptly shut down Isaac would not be ours and quite frankly we would not have been able to buy our place. If I had not had a crummy job when I first came to Birmingham, I would not be teaching at such an amazing school. If my dear friend Jamie's son had not been born with a cleft lip, she might not have opened my eyes and heart to a child like Isaac.

I guess what I am saying is that I am in a place where the wisdom of it all is so clear and I am so glad to be on this end of it for the time being. I feel this is important to, because I think of all the little passing comments, or influences that led us to where we are. Not just the major people in our lives, or major events led us here. It was all of it. So next time you get the chance to come into contact with someone in a vulnerable place remember that what you say, do, how you treat them, really does matter. Maybe not right then, but it sticks with you, shapes you, goes into that tool box and one day gets put to use.

So thank you to all of those people and experiences that have crossed our paths. Weather they were positive or negative does not make a difference. It has made us who we are and led us to where we are.

Now the big question is what is next. Contentment is a new concept for me. I will be honest, I am looking around each corner wondering what the next surprise is. For now I think it is a small dose of normalcy. That is a pretty new thing for us.

Maybe that is the suprize.