Giving Thanks

Today, we spent the day feasting with our large, loud family. The monkeys ate it all up...turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, corn, cheerios....the usual Thanksgiving food. What we're really thankful for is the family we've been blessed with. I don't say "blessed," it's not generally part of my vocabulary. But we three have been truly blessed. My mother was raised Catholic and broke from the flock in college, yet her family has kept us close. We disagree on a lot....a lot of politics, a lot of religion. But it truly doesn't matter. We're so fortunate to have a family that easily looks past the very big things we disagree on, and once a year greets our branch of the family tree with arms open wide. We eat, we laugh. What's so beautiful to me this year in particular (we skipped last year...we were less than a month home from NICU) is that despite the conservative-ness of my mother's family, my children and me are still welcomed as though everything were "normal," and that I wasn't going this "alone." (The "alone" is "alone" instead of alone because I'm not actually alone, I'm just without a partner.) They don't care. They love love love love us. And for that I am truly grateful.