Counting Blessings

And sometimes we even bounce over the big blessings like I’m pregnant. 32 weeks in. My second child. A boy this time.

With the speed at which life travels, we can easily skip over blessings that happen every day and because they happen every day we forget to be thankful for them:

• making breakfast with my daughter as she carefully watches my every move
• putting on makeup and watching her mimic me by brushing her face too or looking at herself in the mirror
• security guards that know us and watch out for us because we are their gente – their people
• a warm cup of a delicious Caramel Cappuccino at my favorite coffee shop.
• lunch with Husband everyday
• dogs that bark and jump with nothing but excitement when you get home… every single time.

What everyday blessings could you be more thankful for?

Sometimes we are so busy looking forward to the big things that will happen that we miss the small things that are happening right now:

• sitting on the sideline with my daughter, watching her wave to Husband while he plays footballwith his friends.
• chance meetings with someone you haven’t seen in a while
• skyping with friends that are far away
• a glass of wine
• watching TV on your rooftop, in the open air, warm breeze hitting your face
• food shopping and not having to think about if we could afford to eat this week

What small things are you missing?

With our first, we weren’t trying. And when he suggested that maybe I was pregnant I thought Is this guy nuts? There was no way I could be pregnant…

A little more planning, but not much, went into the second one. We knew we wanted to have another child sooner rather than later; so with out first being 9 months we decided it was a good a time as any. After all, it might take a little while…

Boom! Remember?

But it wasn’t just getting pregnant that was easy. Being pregnant was and has been easy too. I’ve had some light nausea, some heartburn – fixable with TUMS, less sleep, anemia – that I had before pregnancy, and back pain.

I try not to skip over this blessing, to remember that not everyone’s path to this miracle is easy or even possible.

Many couples try… and try.
Many couples try different routes and treatments and procedures.
Many couples try and live through months or years of disappointment and sorrow.
And many couples at the end of trying, and treatments, and disappointment… just can’t.

It’s unfair and it happens to the healthiest, the youngest, the wealthiest. It happens to the brunettes, the hard-working, the non-working, the most fit, the organic eating.

Motherhood, as wondrous and magical as it can be, is also painful and brutal. I know this when I stifle my tears or cry in the doctor’s office about all of the things that could go wrong. I knew it when I thought about suffocating someone to death if I heard one more person say that breastfeeding would come naturally when it didn’t. I know that motherhood isn’t always dancing barefoot in the sunlight with your kid “easy.”

It can be hard and ugly and unfair and certainly not easy. But I’m still grateful because many people would switch shoes if they could and that is what I bounce over sometimes, that not everyone is the lucky that you are today. So we count the blessings: big, small, and all.

What are you blessed with today?

Numbers by Denise Krebs