Counting my blessings

I've been reminded this past month how lucky I am.  Like 100 times over.  I come from a really great family.  I was raised in a good home with loving parents.  I was sad my Mom wasn't well enough to come to Colorado for Paige's baptism.  Sad isn't really the right word.  Honestly I was heartbroken.  I knew Paige would be ok but I needed her with me.  Since she couldn't come she sent my two sisters and I couldn't have felt luckier.  It meant so much to me that they were willing to come for the weekend with only a week or so to pull it together.  Their families need them but what I didn't realize is that I needed them too.  It was so fun to have them around and I'll forever be grateful for our sisters weekend here in Colorado.

I also married into a really great family.  Todd was raised in a loving family as well and I love them like my own.  His mom was able to come back for Paige's baptism (she was just here a few months ago after she came with us to Disneyland to help out).  It's not easy for her to get around right now with her 2 bum hips but she's a trooper and I'm glad she was able to be here to celebrate with us and Paige.  She's been a great second mom to me and I'm happy I don't have those dreaded "mother-in-law" stories to share. 

I have a great little family of my own.  How lucky am I to be married to a good man and to have these 3 little girls we adore?  I have someone who's on my team - always.  Married life has been easy.  Honestly.  Todd makes it easy and fun and the girls are all so great.  They're so different but all so sweet and good.  I love being a wife and I love being a mother and I'm just grateful for my sweet family.

I also have a ward family that loves and supports me and my family.  Losing my dad a year and a half ago was the hardest thing I've dealt with yet.  It was a long summer  and I spent a lot of time traveling back and forth between Las Vegas and Seattle.  I will forever be grateful for the time I was able to spend with my dad that summer and I couldn't have done it without my friends in my ward up there.  They watched my kids, they fed my family and they were there to listen and cry with me.  Their love and prayers supported me and my family through all that.  Now that I'm home I'm surrounded by my ward family here.  Many of them I've known for almost 10 years but I know that even the ones I've only known for a few months would help me out if I needed it.  And I them. How great to be able to move anywhere in the world and find that kind of love. 

We watched a movie the other night called "The Human Experience".  It was a good movie (I guess it was a documentary) where these two kids in their 20's slept on the streets of New York trying to experience what it's like to be homeless and then went to a leper colony in Africa and spent some time in an orphanage somewhere and spent some time digging wells in another small village where the people had nothing.  They were surprised to find these people happy.  They had nothing and yet, they still found a way to be happy and to have meaning in their lives.  Towards the end they concluded that it's all about family - whether blood or adopted - and a sense of belonging.  I'm lucky and oh so grateful to have so much family around me that loves me and loves my kids and will help us out when things are hard and will be there when things aren't hard.  Life is good.