Patchwork Heart

For all of my friends who are celebrating Thanksgiving today, HAPPY TURKEY DAY!

For everyone else, happy Wednesday.

No matter whether this is a holiday for you or not, I hope everyone’s day is full of love and good food, and at least one reminder of something you’re grateful you have in your life.

For me…  I have so much to be thankful for.  I have a husband like no other, who supports me in ways I never knew I needed.  He looks out for me, takes care of me, and pampers me even when I may not deserve it.  He is more than I could ever have hoped for, and he makes me happier than I thought possible.  Every new day is one where I fall more thoroughly in love.  He is the reason I have come to find words like love and perfection to be entirely inadequate.

I have a family that is amazing in its potential for strength and love.  I have never met people who are more ready to love you, more prepared to hold you up, more thrilled with making you happy.  My family is wonderful.  My parents have given up so much to give us the beautiful childhoods we had.  My sister is the hardest working person I know.  My brother Ryan is absolutely hilarious, and easily has the biggest heart of us all.  My brother Blake is having a hard time right now, but I know he is fiercely loyal to us when it counts.

My extended family… and this includes a lot of my friends… could fill up a book worth of qualities I adore.  I have found myself suddenly surrounded by the most amazing, intelligent, giving people in the world.  I wish each of them the most beautiful lives possible in this world.

My friends, all of you, have kept me going through some terribly rough times.  You have given me so much of yourselves.

And Sweetpea Manatee…  how could I forget how very thankful I am for you this year.  You have helped to heal my heart, and each new day is another chance for me to love you more.

More than anything this year, I am grateful for my beautiful patchwork heart.

It may have been tattered and torn, had holes and rips and frays, but in the end it is more beautiful for it.  I have given bits away and been rewarded with new patches to add to its fantastic surface.  I carry a piece of each and every one of you here, and patches for my children, even my sweet puppy.  Thank you all for your tremendous efforts, you unselfish additions to crafting my patchwork heart.

Be filled with love, today and always.