Giving Thanks Every Day

This is a photo of me (blue shirt) with my parents, my sister, and her family. Also a photo of James with his parents and his granny.


I am thankful that we both have such incredible families. Although all of my family still live in my hometown of Bradenton and James' family all live in his hometown of Knoxville, we see everyone as often as possible. His folks have visited twice with us already this year, and my parents were just here this last weekend. And we make the drive to Florida or Tennessee as much as we are able to. James and I don't have children, and since we are in our 40's it isn't likely to ever happen, but his sisters and my sister both have two each, so we have many nieces and nephews to love. Our parents and our siblings are all happily married. Everyone in the family is healthy and balanced, even his 92-year-old granny who still lives independently in her own home! Even in this economy, everyone has a great job (not counting me, but I left mine voluntarily), they own their homes, take vacations, spoil their pets, devote time to church and community. In other words, our entire family is just absolutely wonderful. And for that I am thankful beyond words. We have fantastic role models for marriage in our parents, we have watched the nieces and nephews grow up to be young adults, we both had grandparents we were able to enjoy spending time with as children. I see some of the crazy things families do to each other, and I don't understand it. Friendships come and go, but families ARE families forever!