Month: November 2013

Thankful…

For 65 months of wedded bliss with the absolute love of my life.
For celebrating a first Thanksgiving with the perfect baby boy I prayed about for many years.
For family and friends who love me so well in every way and in every season.
For turkey…for puppies…for crisp weather and Kodak moments.
In short, for blessings, large and small, that reveal the heart of our loving God.

As I basked in the details of this beautiful day, I couldn’t help but be consumed by the fact that I almost missed it.

With that in mind, I will not let it end without raising my glass and saying thank you once again to all of my heroes and angels at Winnie Palmer, without whom I would not be here to celebrate.

Words fall woefully short in expressing just how thankful I am this year. The experiences of 2013 have provided a perspective that prohibits me from taking any moment for granted and my heart is overflowing with gratitude. Today and everyday, I thank God for the gift of every moment…and for blessing me with far more than I deserve.

So. Incredibly. Thankful.

For William’s first Halloween, we hit the road for SSI.  As it often happens, Halloween coincided with the annual FL-GA weekend, so William got to experience all of it in one fell swoop!  We arrived on the island just in time for us to put him in his bear costume and head down to the Village.  Since it is primarily a vacation town, there weren’t many Halloween festivities to speak of.  As we strolled along, we realized that this holiday would hold a significance for an unexpected reason…it marked the first time that William saw the ocean!!  I say this with a slight cringe, even though it was a wonderful experience.  It just strikes me as funny that at nearly 8 months old, our Florida-born son had to travel to Georgia to see the ocean for the first time.  Oops!

He was immediately entranced by the wind and the waves.  He didn’t want to take his eyes off the grand expanse of water.  Gilbert and I are both such huge fans of the ocean that it came as no surprise–he has seafaring genes on both sides!  It was such a special time for us as a family.  We absolutely adored watching him take it all in.  We walked up and down the path along the coastline and let him soak it up.  The fact that he was in a bear costume just adds to this memory.  How many kids can say that the first time they went to the beach they were dressed like a bear?  Random, but totally fun.  :0)