Reflecting on my year and Giving Thanks...

Thanksgiving was, as always, a wonderful time for us.  I remember last thanksgiving being anxious wondering if I may be pregnant.  Wow, how time flies!  It makes me think of everything that's happened to me (and to this family) in the last year...  We found out we were pregnant, I taught middle school religion while I watched my waistline expand beyond all expectation, dealt with morning sickness, ate lots of potatoes and chocolate shakes, went to numerous appointments, unsucessfully tried to keep my ankles from becoming beach balls, walked around the neighborhood listening to "faster, stronger" by kanye in anticipation of being in better shape for labor, going through labor and delivery (life-changing), days in the hospital full of challenges with jaundice, breastfeeding, possible infection prompting monitors, IVs and a lumbar pucture for a 2 day old son; then came going to the pediatric urologist and waking up for night feedings. 

I'm most thankful this year for the life that God has shared with me.  Me of all people has been given the gift of this little person, this little soul that needs cared for and taught- a little one that needs love and has love to give.  I am ever saying those words that came to me in a prayerful way at 4am Aug 6th when the nurses brought Benjamin to me to snuggle because his temp wasn't going back up...  I rested in the hospital bed with Joe's sleepy breathing coming from the corner and the dawn light softly illuminating the twin spires of the Cathedral outside my window, and most of all the feeling of the warm little body moving ever so softly and steadily on my chest with tiny breaths... I couldn't help but just keep repeating.. "Who am I that God should give you to me?"