Thankful Thursday

Recently I've heard about the deaths of at least 3 little ones. Little innocent babies or children who were taken from this earth too soon. It's really made me stop and think this week about how truly blessed we are as parents.

So this week I'm thankful for my two beautiful daughters. They are healthy, they are full of life, they are vibrant and silly and sometimes even drive me up the wall. But they have been given to us as a gift from God, they are actually His, but are 'on loan' to us for awhile. We love them, we cherish them, we thank God for them.

Sometimes I want to scream in frustration when they disobey or don't listen, but other times when I hear of a child dying I want to just hold them close forever and protect them from any harm in this world.

I have this little 'tagline' or cliche that comes at the end of emails that I send out. It says "Creating family memories and traditions since 1996." -- I know it sounds a bit commercial-ish but it's truly been my goal in my life, in my marriage and in my parenting - to make memories for my family, and to carry them on as traditions year after year. It's important to me that they have memories and traditions and a legacy to look back on someday.

There's so much more I could say on the topic of my girls ... perhaps I will highlight them individually at another time. Here is a picture of my blessings on Mother's Day: