Happy Thanksgiving!

I laid in bed last night for a long time just thinking about how very thankful I am for my life. I have a wonderful husband, two amazing children, an equally amazing family, and group of people I call my friends. I have a roof over my head, food on my table, and an environment in which I can safely live and raise my family. I am thankful to celebrate our first Thanksgiving with Ana home, for the process that allowed her to become a part of our family, and for her caretakers who loved her and cared for her the eight months we were apart. I am endlessly thankful to Ana's birth mother who chose to give her life, even when she knew she couldn't be a physical part of it. It is simply impossible to find the words...

It's amazing to look back on your life, and see that things that made no sense at the time; things that devastated you, play out in the big picture so perfectly. I used to feel sorry for myself, for my infertility. I will openly admit I still go to that dark feeling sorry place now and then, but I can now look back and see if it wasn't for that part, that seemed so awful at the time, we wouldn't have ever had our eyes opened to adoption, and we wouldn't have our Ana! I probably wouldn't have started blogging, which led to so many friendships along the way; and I wouldn't have had my eyes opened to the difference one person can make in this world. There are so many ways to help those in need! Maybe this is my purpose, who knows. All I know is that because of something that darkened our lives for so many years, I feel like I'm such a different person than I was before. And I think I'm better for it. When all along I felt like it was so unfair that I was unable to become pregnant a second time, I was actually receiving the most amazing gift of all. God has blessed me with the ability to become a mother in two different, amazingly wonderful ways. It is a wondrous experience to birth a child, and an entirely different, yet equally wondrous experience to adopt one. I consider myself blessed beyond measure to have experienced both.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!