Blessed

Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE holiday.  It always has been (well, at least since I stopped believing in SC).  So, the past couple of years I've had so much to be thankful for.  I've been thinking about what I've been doing at this time of year for the past 7 years:

• 7 years ago at this time, our house was finished and we moved in.  We were preparing for our wedding (on 12/20) and had my bridal shower here the week after we moved in.  :)  We were so excitied and so loved our house.  I still love it....however, there's just not enough storage space here and I regret not paying the extra $10K for the 4th bedroom!  :(
• 6 years ago at this time, I was still mourning the loss of the baby I miscarried at 13 weeks.  And had been going through lots of infertility testing.  I was getting ready for the "final" test (on 12/13) - the laporoscopic surgery to see if I had endometriosis.....that "test" turned into major abdominal surgery and a punctured colon.  But no endometriosis and still no definitive (medical) answer to why we were unable to conceive.
• 5 years ago at this time, we had finally accepted that we would not be able to have a (biological) child of our own.  We started the adoption process the week of Thanksgiving.  We mailed in our application (and $1500 fee) to the adoption agency we had decided on. 
• 4 years ago at this time, we were in Russia.  We left on 11/18 for "trip 1" and met Brady in person for the first time on 11/20.  We spent Thanksgiving day (11/23 that year) on a plane coming back from Moscow.  We were thrilled to eat our Thanksgiving meal at Burger King at the JFK airport after spending 4 days eating Russian food.  Thirteen days later we went back to finalize the adoption and bring Brady home for good!
• 3 years ago at this time, I was 7.5 months pregnant with Zachary!  And so thankful to have an almost-2-year-old Brady running around all over the place - happiest little baby ever!
• 2 years ago at this time, I was 20 weeks pregnant with Easton!  That's right - 2 years back to back.  And I actually spent the weekend before Thanksgiving in the hospital with a horrible stomach bug that left me completely dehydrated.  I found out that Easton was an Easton (and not a Reilly) the following Monday and kept that secret for 19 more weeks!  Zachary was almost 11 months old and Brady was almost 3!
• 1 year ago at this time, I was still nursing Easton who was 8 months old; Zachary was almost 2 and Brady was almost 4!  Last year was a big one.  We had so much to be thankful for after almost losing Easton when he was only 4 days old.  Easton is now 19.5 months old, Zachary will be 3 in January and Brady will be 5 in February!!

We have so much to be thankful for.  What we went through to start our family was so hard - but I really think it makes us appreciate our family more than most people do.  The struggles we went through made us stronger people and we are grateful for that.  It could have been so much worse.  And we're lucky that it wasn't.  So, this year and for all my years to come, I will think of that.

Happy Thanksgiving!!