Thankful Thursday

I hope all of you blogger will join in! I'm going to be posting "Thankful Thursday," just my thoughts on what I'm thankful for, every Thursday of this month and hopefully it's something I'll continue for awhile after that!

I'm thankful for the abundance in our lives that allows us to give to others!

Remember awhile ago I posted about trying to focus on THANKFULNESS this month? Well, I've been working on it and I've specifically been working on it with Christian. The first thing we've done is work on our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. A little girl from the Sunday School class I used to teach went to Africa last summer and helped deliver these shoe boxes to needy children. My heart was so grieved to hear that they didn't have enough shoe boxes for all the children at the school she went to. So the teacher's had to pick the neediest children and only give one box per family. So this year I was determined to do more than just my usual two boxes and Christian was really on board. He's been talking about "the kids with no toys" for weeks now and he keeps asking me what their names are. I'm glad it keeps pulling at his heart! I'm glad he wants to know more about them and I love how proud he was to take his boxes to church last week!

(Ryan and I at the White House several Christmas' ago)!

I'm thankful for our government and our country!

Since you all know who I voted for, you also must know that my guy didn't win the election! But I'm totally okay about it. I haven't really even felt that disappointed. I've been thinking a lot about Daniel. Daniel was an administrator to King Darius during a time in history when King Darius had made a decree making it illegal to worship God. But Daniel was faithful to God and continued to pray and worship God and that's how he ended up in the lion's den. But God protected Daniel and used Daniel to change the heart of the king. This is what King Darius said when Daniel was pulled out of the lion's den without a scratch on him; "I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. "For he is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions." So I'm praying for a few Daniel's in the Obama administration! I know that God can strategically place people in Barack Obama's life to change his heart! So I'm not discouraged! God is still on His throne! I'm just praying!

I'm thankful for sleep!

That might seem trivial to those of you who actually get to sleep on a regular basis, but it's not something I take for granted these days. In fact I should be sleeping right now. Both of my kids are down. I think I need to wrap this up quickly and head to bed!

(Picture of McKenna after getting some shots a few months ago)

I'm thankful for great doctors and good insurance!

We were at the doctor today for a follow up visit to make sure McKenna's pneumonia has cleared up. The good news is that her pneumonia is gone. The bad news is that she has her fourth ear infection in four months. I actually gasped when the doctor told me because she's been on an antibiotic and still got an ear infection. Same ear as the other three infections. So we will be heading to a pediatric ear, nose and throat specialist and she will most likely be getting a tube put in the that one silly ear that won't drain. It's totally frustrating and I'm just so sad for her because I can tell it hurts, but praise God for great doctors who take the time to listen and have compassion about the situation! And praise God for insurance! Since August we have spent over $700.00 on prescriptions, thankfully we get 80% of that back because of our insurance company! I can't even imagine how we would survive without insurance! So the glass is half full on this one! I hate it that McKenna continues to have medical issues, but I'm thankful that she's getting good care and that we will get this resolved!

(Christian and Ryan the day Christian got his train table! He was soooo excited.)

I'm thankful for choo-choo trains!

I am so thankful for trains and for Christian's continued love of trains. Do you have any idea how much time he spends playing trains? This afternoon he played for hours and then Emma got home from school and played with him. I got so much done and there was very little whining! And that's why Thomas, Sir Topham Hat, and the rest of the gang are definitely something to be thankful for!

"Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. " Psalm 100:4