Day 30: For this challenge because...

I am grateful for this challenge because of the depth of questions on this list (see Day 1 for the full list).  I've done this 30 day gratitude challenge for the past 3 years and it's always helpful to spend an extended time reflecting on all the blessings in your life.  But this particular list focused more on intangible things than the past lists, and even on some challenges.  It caused me to remember people and events that go way back in time, and to reframe certain difficult memories through a lens of gratitude.  I'm hoping that this mental stretching in what constitutes a blessing will be helpful to me in having gratitude towards a wider range of things in my life going forward.  I'm hoping that I will more often think of the people in my life, or situations that are challenging, or regular parts of my life that I just don't give much thought to one way or the other, and see the rich amount of goodness that can be found in all of it if I just bother to look.  I'm grateful that this challenge has helped me grow in this way. 

Day 29: The Inspiration of..

I am thankful for the inspiration of the Obamas.  I listened to two podcasts this week that interviewed each of them (David Axelrod interviewed President Obama, Oprah interviewed Michelle Obama)(and for the record, i almost always listen to David Axelrod's podcast and almost never listen to Oprah's, but that's the subject of a different conversation), and it was inspiring to hear from both of them.  Listening to the interview with President Obama, it was so inspiring to hear someone with such intelligence, humor, grace, and poise speak.  It was good to hear a former president draw on the positive things about our country and our shared humanity, rather than tapping into messages of fear.  It was heartening to remember that our presidential leadership has not always been the way it currently is, and will not always be this way.  Though I disagree with President Obama on some of his policy and political positions,  I respect that he comes to his positions thoughtfully, intelligently, and compassionately.  I deeply admire the way he held the office with dignity and without scandal.  Listening to the interview with Michelle Obama, I had several of the same thoughts - I also admire her intelligence, humor, grace, and poise.  I admire the way she is real, but also so impressive.  It's exciting to think about what both of them might do with their lives to inspire and improve the country in the next several decades, and I'm very grateful for their leadership and example. 

Day 28: I am Thankful for the Help of...

I am so thankful for the help of my mother-in-law, Betty.  She's always finding new ways to help us, big and small, and I don't know how I'd manage without her.  She comes over once a week to help with the kids, and often helps out with babysitting on top of that.  She is frequently our dogsitter for Gus.  She hosts the holiday meals and leads the way on birthday meals as well.  She's gone above and beyond even when we needed help out of town, like traveling with me for Joshua's surgeries in Utah and staying with us for awhile when Zoey was born in Virginia.  I know that I can always count on her and that she's always thinking of ways to be helpful before we even ask, and I'm so grateful for her. 

Day 27: What Makes Home so Sweet for Me

Today I'm doing something that's a little bit of a cheat, but I'm reading a devotional called "Morning and Evening" by Charles Spurgeon, and he wrote a paragraph that nails it about what makes home so sweet.  I'm grateful for everything he writes, and I'm grateful for all the other insights in his great book.  Without further ado, here are his words:  

Day 26: All of the People I am Happy to Have Met...

I am thankful for the Americorps volunteers I met while living in Alamosa, Colorado.  I saw a show recently that cleverly pointed out how no one wants to hear someone go on and on about how meaningful their brief stint of volunteering was, especially when that person started and ended in a life of total privilege.  So I will try to keep that in mind as I write this post :).

The year in Alamosa WAS very meaningful to me and it did teach me a ton of things about working with people living in poverty.  But one of the best things about the year was the friendships made with the other volunteers.  We came from all over the world, ranged in age from fresh out of high school to retired, had different religious and political leanings, and there were some wildly divergent personalities.  But we all somehow ended up in this small town in the beautiful San Luis Valley of southern Colorado, all with the common goal that we wanted to spend the year serving in this nonprofit to fight rural poverty.  We lived together, worked together, and socialized together.  We camped, hiked, snowshoed, and hit every hot spring we could find.  We ate thousands of meals together.  We also spent lots of bored hours together, since our house didn't have cable / Netflix / Internet reception / any of the other devices that allow people to retreat to their own rooms and zone out, and since our town of 10,000 people didn't have a lot of nightlife options.  It was way more intense even than the college dorm experience.  So even though we were only together for 365 days and then we spread back out to our different corners of the world and our different lives, the experience led to deep friendships while we were there, and memories that will last our entire lifetimes.  I'm grateful for so many things about this year, but right at the top of the list is all the people pictured above (and a few more who didn't make the picture). 

Day 25: So far this year

Cleft palate repair at CHKD

I am thankful that, so far this year, we have had zero surgeries and zero emergency room visits.  Our first year as parents was spent with many, many weeks in hospital rooms.  Josh has had fifteen total surgeries.  This is our first calendar year since we became parents that we haven't had a pediatric surgery. 

I haven't kept as close of track on emergency room visits, but I think this might also be the first calendar year since becoming parents where we haven't had cause to visit a children's emergency room. 

Yosemite!

I don't know what the future holds, and I don't know if this is just a calm year in an ongoing storm, or if we've finally turned the corner toward a more permanent state of good health.  The special needs journey is full of surprises.  But I'm profoundly grateful that we've had such a good year with virtually no health problems.  It means we get to enjoy more moments like the one pictured to the right.  It means we all get to have more laughter and less stress.  I'm so grateful that God has brought us safely through so many health problems, and I'm so grateful for a calm, healthy year. 
. 

Day 24: I am Thankful I Pushed Myself When I...

I'm thankful I pushed myself each of the three times I've run a half marathon.  I'm not really a runner, at least not in the same sense as those people who have built running in as a regular part of their adult life.  One one hand, I'm an ex-athlete who used to work out rigorously 6 times per week in high school and college.  On the other hand, I didn't do more than walk for workouts during each of my three pregnancy and post-partum years.  But there are three times in my adult life where I've managed to squeeze in 6 months of intensive running, enough to complete a half marathon each time.  I'm grateful that I pushed myself to do this because it feels really good, physically and mentally, to be in peak physical shape; because it gives you a good baseline of fitness even as you ramp down from the race training schedule; and because it feels like an accomplishment to run 13 miles in a row.  But most of all, I'm grateful to have done it because you realize that, while physical conditioning helps, a lot of the battle in completing endurance races is mental - and this is so much like life.  I think practicing and building mental fortitude under these artificial circumstances helps you with mental fortitude needed for other things in life that are way more important, and I'm grateful for the chance to build up mental strength. 

(Fun fact:  I'm hoping to do another half here in Reno in May.  The small handful of you who are reading these thankful posts can keep me accountable!)