Thanksgiving feels like as appropriate of a time as ever to do some blog posting and photo updating. My family is all soundly sleeping after "the feast day" (which is how Amelia is referring to Thanksgiving. That girl. Love her so.) and I'm taking advantage of a quiet moment to do some writing and sorting through pictures. I am well aware that I have more gifts than I could ever deserve and am constantly reminding myself to hold them with open hands. This season of our lives and our marriage and our family is such a sweet one. There have been hard seasons and there will be more to come, but this season makes my heart want to burst with fullness and gratitude. The seasons of sorrow and heartache that we walk through stretch our souls to make us that much more aware and thankful for the seasons of joy. And, as is usually the case, most times of our lives are mixed bags with more emotions than we could ever name, all circulating through our hearts fluidly. Five years ago on Thanksgiving I lay in a hospital bed and hit 26 weeks of pregnancy. We were weary and we were scared and we knew that our children were balancing on the very thin line that separates life and death. There was absolutely nothing more we could do to help them. So we waited. And we prayed. And we let ourselves be carried by the people that love us. We walked away from those months as people who are more aware. More human. More broken. This time of year holds so many triggers for my heart. Memories of anxiety and fear and hope remind me that we are sustained from one breath to the next by God and that His grace is sufficient. That does not mean that we are guaranteed good outcomes: we aren't. It does mean that He will meet us in our need and that we will never be alone. In times of sweetness and times of deep pain we must live moment to moment, breath by breath, one foot in front of the other. Praying tonight that a heart of contentment and thankfulness will shape the lens through which I view the world. May I choose to remember all that I have been blessed with, holding it openly and with a thankful and aware heart.
I so enjoying taking pictures of the people I love because it captures and freezes moments in time that I am thankful for. Here are a few of many moments this fall that I want to remember ...
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| Sister cousins! |
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| Some version of this pile occurs hourly when the cousins are together :) |
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| Happy 30th Birthday, sister! You are so loved! |
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| Some of my very favorite people. |
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| The last time Amelia was with GG Ruth before she passed away. So glad Scott's cousin, Kristy, captured this moment. |
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| Hope she's old enough to remember this. |
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| My babies who aren't such babies. |
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| Friends that become like family. |
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| My guys. |
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| Enough said :) |
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| Every family needs candy corn costumes, right? And our kids are SO not in the mood for a photo shoot, can you tell? :) |
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| Winnie and Rapunzel |
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| My sweet storm trooper! |
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| School field trip. It's so bittersweet that the preschool phase is coming to an end. Soaking it up this year. |
