thankful

despite the sleep deprivation and parental worry that's been enveloping our home since wednesday, i do have so much to be thankful for. and for this, i am counting my blessings, one by one.

i am thankful for my little harper bean. she woke in the early hours (like 3 am) wednesday morning with a low grade fever. we gave her some tylenol and hoped she would sleep it off. she's never truly been super ill for days at a time, and i guess for that, i can be thankful. but come 8 am, when she awoke crying and was burning up with a temp reaching to 102 degrees, i knew this wasn't going to be an easy day. her temp hit highs and lows while she lazed and slept on the couch all morning, and when it again peaked at 102 after giving another dose of tylenol, we knew it was time to call the doctor. they recommended heading to the er. so off we went, to receive a diagnosis of a throat infection. fevers ensued still through tonight, so we took her to the pediatrician this morning and found a full blown ear infection. we're still not even close to 100%. she has her low temp times, when she's happy and playing and eats a bit here and there, and then there are her high temp times, reaching up to 104. she's miserable. coughing, congested, watery eyes, burning fever. but she's such a trooper. and for her, i am oh so thankful.

(i would blame her fevers on her choice of clothing last weekend, when she wanted to go outside in 30 degree weather to help daddy with winter yard clean up, except that i did not let her out this way.)

i am thankful for the wonderful news we received wednesday morning. 8:10 am (right before harper woke up with a burning fever), my ob gyn called with news that she said she received at 1 am that morning while on call at the hospital and wanted to share before the holiday. my quad screen blood test came back negative, meaning my chances of having a child with the 3 items they check for- down syndrome, trisomy 18 and neural tube defects (i.e. spina bifida)- are super duper low. there's always a chance, because they didn't check the actual chromosomes, just my blood (which would have mingled with the baby's blood and shown some type of sign), but it eased our worries and has allowed us some peace. we're still going ahead with a follow-up ultrasound, just for more peace of mind. but, we definitely had a lot to be thankful for.

i am thankful for my dad, and the fact that God had a plan for him. he suffered a very serious heart attack 8 years ago on Wednesday, one that left him in a drug-induced coma through thanksgiving of that year, in the icu for 11 days and in the hospital for a total of 17. i remember my visits to the hospital each and every day. christmas music playing on the radio, my backpack filled with my graduate school assignments, entering the hospital lobby bright and early with the sunrises and listening to the beeps and whirs of the machines until way past sunsets each night. arriving with the morning shift change nurses and leaving with the night shift change ones. i couldn't leave his side. i couldn't bare to miss a possible something. and i'm so thankful that he's still making his mark.

i'm thankful for my family, and that we got to spend this thanksgiving together. it was a tough one, being the first without my uncle. but it was wonderful seeing how our family is growing and changing.

yup, a blurry picture. have to keep practicing to get more than one person in focus in a group shot.

i am thankful for holiday traditions, including our annual day-after-thanksgiving-christmas-tree-hunt. we bared the freezing cold and wind (and even dragged poor harper out for a little fresh air, miserable as she was, but wanting to go) to find the perfect tree for our family room. more pictures of a completed tree to come.

and finally, i am thankful for this guy.

as i was taking pictures of him carting our tree back to the barn, he did some posing for me. he keeps me sane. he keeps a smile on my face. he keeps me laughing. he reminds me of the things that are truly important and the gifts we have when we've been faced with another storm in our lives. i don't thank him nearly enough.

i counted a ton of blessings on thanksgiving day, despite the fact that michael and harper were home and only joined us for a little while after dinner. i love that this holiday reminds us each year of what we have in our lives, and starts us on the right path toward the true meaning of christmas.