Thanksgiving Continued (What I’m REALLY Grateful For)

Last week I made it sound like I was grateful for homeschooling. I lied.

Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful for the privilege of homeschooling my kids, and for the blessings we reap as a result of it– but come Turkey Day that wasn’t what I shared around my much older sister’s table.

Unintentionally, we spent the holiday in Oregon with family, the first since relocating to Montana over four years ago. It was the best, but Thanksgiving wasn’t the reason for our visit…

My grandma is very sick, her body simply failing. And let me tell you, being three states away when someone you love is hurting royally sucks. After weeks of enduring my roller-coaster of lamentations, and watching me literally lose sleep over the matter, Handsome Husband made the executive decision to rush us all to Oregon so I could spend time at her bedside before her passing– for the sake of my our collective sanity.

Thanksgiving alongside parents, nieces, and siblings? Allllll gravy.

When it came my turn to share with the table what I was most grateful for this season, I was immediately reduced to a blubbering ball of incoherent, upper-octave sentiments. But here’s the meat & potatoes of things:

I’m grateful for my generous, selfless Husband. He gets me and loves me well.

For my sister, along with her hubby, who (despite being so very much older than myself) cheerily took our trio each day for an extended edition of Cousin Camp while I focused on Grandma (Handsome Husband worked remotely). They run a veritable fun factory, the kids didn’t even miss us.

For besties who understood I lacked time to connect, yet diligently prayed and checked in with regular encouragement and compassion.

For my mom and Bestie Christy who both graciously lent us their empty homes while they were away, so we could retreat in solitude and decompress at the end of each exhausting day.

For family who didn’t assign me a single dish for the traditional Thanksgiving spread. Husband mustered a lovely relish tray, sans help from moi.

For welcome pockets of laughter and silliness in an otherwise overwhelmingly somber week.

For sweet neighbors holding down the home-front and tending to the menagerie of critters we keep. They even shoveled our driveway!

I’ve felt propped up, supported. And I’m grateful.

Mostly, I’m thankful for the chance to hold Grandma’s hand for hours on end, to just be with her and watch her sleep, and for the opportunity to say goodbye.

“Moses’ arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them up. So Aaron and Hur found a stone he could sit on; then they stood on each side of Moses, holding up his hands– so that his hands remained steady ’til sunset.” -Exodus 17:12