Photo credit: Blessed Is She

For the month of October I participated in #write31days with my own 31 Days of Gratitude. It was a great exercise in being thankful, especially when I am prone to complain. It is easy for me to get frustrated and upset when things go wrong and it takes the grace of God and my taking a deep breath to instead look at the enormous blessings that surround my life. Practicing gratitude is something I want to continuously cultivate in my life so I am excited that I have the chance to be intentionally grateful this month of November with my sisters at Blessed Is She.

Meagan wrote a great piece (that girl can write!) on the BIS blog and this week we are being challenged to share our gratitude! If you are a blogger, link up here. If you are on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat or whatever your social media preference, share the gratitude and use the hashtag #BISgrateful. There is a lot of stress these days – from our own families to the upcoming election to world events. We could all benefit from taking a deep breath and focusing on the positive in our life.

Last month I talked about my boys and how after years of secondary infertility and miscarriages, they were truly a blessing from God. I shared how life is loud, messy and filled with giggles about bodily functions but that I am love with my sweet little guys.

Although I talk a lot about the boys and their antics on the blog, I don’t talk as much about my first born and sweet daughter Bella. That is simply to give her more privacy as she gets older. But today I am mentioning her because I am especially thankful for the time we shared this weekend.

Bella was scheduled to attend a Confirmation retreat/hike at the beach on Saturday. In the days leading up to the retreat, everything was going wrong and life was extra stressful. (You can always tell when things are stressful. The blog is quiet and I don’t post to IG. 😉 ) Then at the last minute, a call came in and I was asked if I could chaperone for a couple of hours at the retreat since the the other person had an unexpected situation come up. It meant changing plans and moving around schedules but I could feel God tugging at my heart that I should go, so I did.

I may have been reluctant but I am glad I went because Bella and I were able to talk, share and pray together. (Not to mention that the beach was especially gorgeous that day!) We laughed that I felt like I was dying hiking up some of the hills and that I kept lagging behind the group (and got lost once) because I was taking too many photos. Plus, Bella is more like Brian, in that she tends to be more quiet about what she is thinking (whereas I post it for all the world to read) and it was touching to have her open up about things on her mind. It was good for both of us.

So not only am I thankful for our time together, but I’m thankful for the grace to answer the Holy Spirit’s prompting when I wanted to say NO. Sometimes things don’t go as I had planned but more often than not, when I surrender to God, He works things out even better than I could have imagined. For that I am truly thankful.

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