We have a lot to be thankful for.

This post is timely because of Thanksgiving, but would be appropriate regardless...

Now that we are home after 5 and 1/2 days and 5 nights at Scottish Rite, Andrew and I realize that we have so much to be thankful for.

We have a healthy baby.
Yes, we just spent a while in a hospital where Jackson was confined to his room b/c he had a contagious virus, but I saw so many other sick kids at SR. We actually ran into my old dance teacher, Mr. Peter and his wife, Camille. Their daughter (his by marriage) lost her leg in a tragic accident. It was heartbreaking to learn that they'd spent 6 weeks at a hospital between GMC and SR...her leg could not be saved below the knee and was amputated yesterday. I can only imagine the devastation for all. We also saw so many children with cancer and other chronic illnesses that we had a stop and be thankful we were only in there temporarily with a particularly nasty virus.

We have great jobs.
Both Andrew and I were supposed to work Friday, and he was supposed to work through the weekend. I took J to the doctor Friday morning and had to call in b/c I couldn't find a sub right away and needed to get going...my teammates, my principal, and my friends were quick to cover for me and made sure things went smoothly in my absence. All of them checked in on us. Andrew met us at SR when they sent us there...his boss was fabulous - told him to go and took care of his leave paperwork. Neither of us were stressed about missing work so we could concentrate on taking care of our little man. We are thankful that in a time where jobs are often hard to come by, we work with great people who truly care about us.

We have a great support system.
I cannot tell you how many facebook messages, texts, etc. that we received from our family and friends this week. We had dinner brought over and constant prayers going up for the wisdom of the doctors, J's complete healing and recovery, and our well-being. We felt that love and support, knowing it was genuine. My parents and sister were contstantly around bringing food, holding little man so I could go to the bathroom or take a 5 minute nap(even when that meant he threw up on them), running home to get me new clothes b/c I refused to leave the hospital... We always value our family and friends, but truly appreciate them after this experience. To all of you who sent messages, posts, and texts of encouragement and love, to all of you who prayed and thought of us throughout this time, and to all of you who brought food, visted, and called - thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

We worship a powerful God.
God often humbles us...and he did that for us this weekend. We feel so blessed to simply be able to bring our son who is on the mend home with us...we have everything we need. Our bank account might not be where we want it to be and we may not have accompished everything in our life that we want to yet, but God has given us so much to be thankful for. It would be remiss to not mention his power to heal, power to give, power to love, and power to give grace-given strength in our times of need. We saw God move in all of those ways this week and believe in His goodness.