Today Last Year

This is kind of a strange week, thinking about the upcoming anniversary of our accident.  Today - not the date - but the day - does that make sense?  Anyway this day last year was the last day I went to work for almost 4 months.  Of course I didn't know that it would be the last day.  If I had known I would have left my desk less of a mess!  I am in a strange mood today.  Almost giddy. I am just so excited for this weekend with our kids.  I'm excited for the holidays to feel like holidays.  I have so much to be thankful for and i am feeling it today.
I am so thankful for the husband that I have.  I am so glad to be married to my best friend.  I love our relationship.

I am so thankful for our children.  I am grateful for the gift of motherhood.  I always always wanted to be a mother and loved (well maybe not in the moment - but still) giving birth to my 4 children.  I love having them in my life.  My sister-in-law told me the other day that step-kids are "bonus kids" - I love that.  They truly are a bonus.  I love my  bonus children! 

I love the family that I grew up in.  I am so blessed with the parents that I was sent too.  I love my siblings. We didn't always get along when we were growing up but now I have a great deal of love for them.  I just learned this morning that instead of buying sibling gifts for each other last year they gave money to us - I could cry.  So sweet.

I love the family that I am married to.  Last night  for Cassidy's play we had two entire rows of the auditorium filled for her.  How great is that.  They love me and my children and I love them  for it.  They were also so amazing last year.  I can't even beleive how amazing they were in our time of need.

I love the family that I was once married in.  That may sound strange  but it is true.  I loved the Rice family and still do.  I love that my children have so many sets of grandparents to look up to.  I love the examples that they see in the their aunts and uncles.

I love my job.  I love that Heavenly Father helped me with school and helped me pass that crazy nursing board so that I could have the job that I have now.  I love my office and the people that I work with so much.  I feel like they are part of my family. I am so thankful for the love and support they have always shown me but especially this past year - they have given so much of their time and love and hours and everything else.

I love my calling at church.  I have never helped in young women's before and  I love being a part of this organization for girls. 

I love my life.  It is so incredibly hard some days and yet it is so good.  I allow myself to get so frustrated sometimes.  There are so many things that are hard and so many hard things around us.  And scary time ahead - I know this.  And my life is so far from perfect.  I am so far from perfect and yet my Father in Heaven is so good to me.  I love reading the scriptures and have a deep love for the Book of Mormon.  I have been paying attention this year to passages that say something about being a highly favored people of the Lord.  Watch for them - their lives are never easy and almost always filled with war and yet they talk about being highly favored.  I have been thinking alot about that this past year about what it means to be highly favored.  I know that I have been blessed and I am so grateful for the life I have and the blessings that I have received.  My life has not been easy (not as hard as some but hard for me) but I have also seen many miracles and I love my life.  I am happy. - and I know it!