So I have decided to take a little writing challenge about finding joy in each day. Sometimes we go each day just getting through to the next. The same routine… working, cooking, cleaning, dropping kids, picking up kids, homework, bed time stories…you get the picture. Longing for that “TGIF” only to have the same weekend regimen. Some days are easy to be thankful for and some days are hard. I have to remind myself…happiness depends on this world but true joy depends on God. Today I am thankful for many things and it is just morning! I am thankful that my sweet Ava is well. When she gets sick my mood tends to change, I start to think about how much I hate her mcadd illness and about how it will affect her future. This week was a challenge, Maverick was out of town. Life didn’t stop just because Ava was sick. I don’t sleep much when she is ill, so 5 days of illness equals 5 days of little sleep. By last night, I put a movie on for her and fell asleep at 4:30. I was so glad to get my hubby at 9:45 last night from the airport! Yes, I yawned all the way there and back! As I sit here this morning listening to my happy, well child babble in the bedroom with her daddy that she missed so much, I am thankful that her disorder is treatable and that we have the knowledge and the means to keep her healthy. I am thankful that I can be home with her. I am thankful that I have a loving hard working husband who takes good care of us. As I am thankful for all of these things, my heart aches for those who don’t have these things. This makes me thankful to God for giving me challenges in my life. He has given me the ability to have empathy and sympathy for others. To want to reach out to them not grudgingly but willingly. Because of Ava I see things so differently than I did years ago…thank you Lord!

“Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and joy are in his dwelling place”
1 Chronicles 16:27