Thankful Thursday

"Never doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light."

- Unknown

I feel like these last almost three weeks have been some of the most challenging and trying this year.  There definitely hasn't been any shortage of rain (literally and figuratively).  Looking back on the awesome things that having been happening, I feel like I should have been expecting the other shoe to drop because life is all about balance right?  Surely, we can only have but so many positive and amazing things happen before the negative comes crashing down.  True but how we choose to respond to the bad times is what really matters.

For me and my family that means not giving into doubt (and fear).  It means keeping our faith firmly planted like a tree by the still waters instead of throwing in the towel or tugging our tails to runaway.  Life is going to be tough.  This I know very well.  For everything there is a season and right now we just need to push through.

This week I'm thankful that all of my family and friends who were displaced by the flooding in the Carolinas earlier this month are back in their homes and back to their jobs.  Some are the process of cleaning up and doing repairs, while others had no damage at all.  Either way I'm just grateful that lives were spared.  

I'm thankful that Moo is still loving first grade.  I mentioned on here when school first started that I wasn't sure how well she would mesh with her teacher, but they seem to have a really great bond so far.  Her teacher has actually loosened up a bit and has grown on me.  We had our first parent-teacher conference and as I expected my baby is acing everything with flying colors.  In fact, it's still the first half of school and she's already almost reached all of her end of year goals!

It's been a joy to listen to her excitedly babble about her day when she gets in the car.  She's making some new friends because none of her friends from her old school got rezoned to her new school.  I was worried about that at first, but she told me that she was going to come out of her shell more and she has.  I'm so proud of Moo.  I will say that since starting first grade, she has become a lot more opinionated at home, but we're working on that end. 

JJ hit a milestone this month.  He'll now be decreasing his speech therapy sessions because he's made so much progress with his vocabulary that his therapist and I both believe he's ready to start being weaned from it.  We will use those days to schedule his OT.  I'm excited for him and love watching his excitement over the fact that he can communicate more clearly with us.  It amazes (and scares) me how quickly he can pick up phrases now. 

Also, I haven't talked about this on the blog yet, but I'm most thankful that after a hit and run since my last Thankful Thursday post, the kids and I made it out okay.  It could have easily been worse than what it was and I'm still a little ticked that the driver who hit us took off without so much as seeing if we were okay.  However, another mom saw us stranded and waiting for the police to arrive and she stopped.  She even got the kids snacks and juice to help them settle down and stayed until help came.

It's just a reminder that there are still amazing, kind-hearted and generous people still out there.  I'm so grateful she stopped when she did because I was just about to have a meltdown myself.  The sound of my kids screaming in the backseat and the flash of seeing the other driver run a stop sign while trying to cut across three lanes is still fresh in my mind.  All in all, we're alive and no one was seriously injured.  My hope is that the police catch her and get her off the road because clearly she's an endangerment to others. 

What are you giving thanks for this week?