Thankful Thursday! (#187)

"Every generous act and every perfect gift is from above,

coming down from the Father of lights;

with Him there is no variation or shadow of turning."

~James 1:17

Today, I am grateful to God for...

1.  A plethora of meaningful memories with my niece and nephews, and for the privilege of getting to watch them grow up (and grow in resilience and wisdom and defending each other)... from 2010 when we first met T&C to today and beyond!

2.  Memories of real life, hands-on scrapbooking with Mom... using glue and tape runner and fun scissors and heart-punches, etc.  It was a low-stress, fun place to practice creative lettering and documenting life events... a habit I've continued now with this blog and my digital scrapbooks!!

3.  For humility and connection... the people who understand and empathize with my struggles, but also hold me accountable and pray for me and want to see me become the best version of myself (CLW and KRF are the main accountability partners at the moment, but I am grateful for every supportive connection that helps me heal and grow).  Secrecy and shame are poison; connection is where healing begins.

4.  My Disney World Christmas trip with the Wilson/Weatherford crew is now booked and paid for... (but I still have the option to cancel or reschedule through October 9th)... huzzah!! ❤

5.  Opportunities for patience? lol  I've gotten a couple emails from Nightlight that they are *still waiting* on clinic approval for my second embryo match.  It's hard to be in limbo about anything that matters to us, but I'm working on trusting God more deeply.

6.  Thankful for the 13 individual clients God has placed in my care so far as a Graduate Intern Counselor, who (like me) are working to heal and grow and create better lives!  I have also really loved working with the CW grief and divorce groups, and I'm grateful to now have an active profile with Psychology Today, thanks to Rachel Elizabeth! =)

7.  For fun Tulsa trips and volleyball weekends... *and also thankful that this club season is over! lol

8.  The Young fam... seeing Godly men step up as protective leaders for their families will never fail to encourage me, and look at these precious pictures!

9.  My Spring reading from March - May!  (All inspiring and fantastic audiobooks with great content, but those are generally my least read & most taxing posts to write, so I'm going to skip the detailed recap in this busy season.)

10.  Amy Christian, for being an inspiring friend and a healthy Enneagram 8 who challenges me to keep pressing forward - I'm excited to see how God is moving in her life and growing her influence!

Bonus:  I'd already written my 10 points above when I got these texts from Chet and Rach yesterday... but it deserves to be added.  I'm thankful for kid cap and gown pics!  Congrats to Tate for being the cutest Kindergarten graduate last night and winning the "Skittles Award" for his colorful creativity! ❤

Also thankful Jace Michael is having fun at the 5th grade Creation Nation retreat - excited to hear about it this weekend! =)

❤