Thankful

Today I am feeling thankful. Our girlie, Ava, has a nasty case of pink eye. I'm not thankful for that though, I feel bad for the poor thing! She is pretty convinced that she has pink eye because she had a staring contest with her cousin at school yesterday and one of the other kids told her that she shouldn't because it would hurt her eyes really, really bad. I tried to assure her on the way home from school that, that wasn't true, it's just a silly thing that kids say. But when we got home she showed me the eye that hurt, it was pink. We got right in to our amazing pediatrician and got some antibiotics for the eye. Unfortunately it spread to the other eye so she has two puffy, red slits for eyes. So we are doing the eye drops and they are slowly looking a little better. I don't know that she will ever fully believe that it wasn't the staring contest with Tyler.

Anyway, back to what I am thankful for. I am thankful that I work at a school that understands that me being mommy comes before me being teacher. I work at a small school and so there isn't a huge selection of substitute teachers and there are a lot of teachers out today. But they made sure my room was covered for me, no questions and no guilt, so that I could be home with Ava. This is rare. And I understand the value. I will always be mommy first and teacher second, as much as I love and adore my students (which I do!).

I am also thankful for this journey of adoption. I would be lying if I said that it didn't hurt, or that I understood it all. It does and I don't. But I believe it is shaping me and molding me into a better person. I have learned to be more patient, even if I didn't want to be :). I have learned a new and deeper love for my husband. I already loved him and knew that he was one in a million, but it's deeper and somehow more now than it was a year ago. He knows my heart, because his is feeling the same as mine is.

I am also thankful for coffee. When you are home all day with a sick kiddo, you can drink as much coffee as you want! Also, for freshly baked chocolate chip cookies...<3 <3 <3

The Circle of Life

"The circle of life" will forever make me think of The Lion King. I love that movie. Generally, I like children's movies more than grown up movies. I don't really know what that says about me, but I'm good with it. 

This week I have been thinking about how life does cycle. And it's strange how some areas of life seem to go agonizingly slow while others seem to move so quickly it's hard to catch my breath. My grandma is dying. Hospice gave her 2 days to 2 weeks. She isn't my biological grandma, but she is my grandma. I think I may have mentioned before that both of my grandfathers passed away when I was 5 and 6 years old. When that happened, my younger sister Jessica didn't understand why we didn't have anymore grandpas. So this lovely couple in our church said they would be our grandparents so that we would still have a grandpa. They haven't missed a birthday or a Christmas for me or my three sisters since then. 

Grandma Mary is about 5 feet tall. But she gets things done! She reminds me of that Shakespeare quote "Though she be little, she is fierce!" I have been going to visit her the last couple of days even though she isn't verbally responsive, she seems to know when someone is talking to her. She always holds my hand. 

Her preparing to pass has really made me think about living life with them. I remember how spunky she was. How fiercely she loved her family, us included. She had a definite opinion on the way she thought things should be done. She was endearing, and gruff, and stubborn. But she loved. I remember her love. I used to sit with them in church every Sunday. They sat in the pew directly behind my mom (my dad was on the platform since he was the pastor). They always had gum. I LOVED gum! I loved it! They would sometimes have dress up jewelry for me too. That was always fun!