T is for....

THANKFUL! I am SO VERY thankful right now. Thankful for my wonderful and sweet family. Thankful for awesome and fun friends. Thankful for my business...even if it has been totally nuts. Thankful for the talent that God has given me and some wonderful avenues to really use it and give it back into the world. We spent Thanksgiving with wonderful friends this year. And Chris's mom and stepdad of course! We threw out the traditional cuisine and had ourselves a Thanksgiving Fiesta! On the menu? Turkey fajitas and grilled vegetables (which were so, so so yummy!), chicken enchiladas, tortilla soup, tacos, refried beans, black beans, spanish rice, mango margaritas...and for desert?! PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE (to die for!) and regular cheesecake and pumpkin pie with coolwhip....YUM, YUM and SUPER YUM! It was delicious! A feast of all feasts! We had such a blessed afternoon with our friends. Enjoying our families, sharing stories and laughter...it was an awesome day! I had someone cancel an appointment the day after Thanksgiving...so I actually had TWO whole days off from pictures! That was awesome! And I went back to picture taking today with a fresh new attitude and perspective...which I needed...because, quite frankly, I was growing rather weary of the season! I finished my two sessions this afternoon (both were running nearly an hour late)...and then got called into the hospital. UMC had a baby coming off of life support. So I jumped in the car and headed off for yet another session. It hit me on the way to the hospital how hard this was going to be for this family. Not that it's easy for ANY family. EVER. But I noticed as I flipped through the radio stations that many were playing Christmas music and carols...and all the stores are bustling with folks Christmas shopping and there is much merriment and a sense of joy in the air right now as the Christmas season approaches. But for these moms who will have empty arms this season...there will not be that joy or feeling of celebration. As I drove to the hospital I thought about our wonderful Thanksgiving and how we all enjoyed it so much and had such a wonderful time. And then I thought of this family that I was going to meet at the hospital...and realized that they had most likely spent their entire Thanksgiving watching their new baby...so full of promise and hope...watching that baby fight for his life. And while we ate turkey and laughed and counted our blessings...this young couple was grappling with the decision of pulling life support and sparing their child more suffering...or continuing to watch him decline and die before their eyes. It was a sobering thought as I drove in. And then I met that family...so sweet...sitting there cradling this precious little cherub baby boy. He was still with them. Still breathing. Still hanging in there. Though as the session progressed he drew fewer and fewer rattling little breaths. And I was just so thankful right then. Thankful that my little ones were all safe and healthy at home. But mostly thankful that I could just be there and be able to capture those last sweet and tender moments of a mother with her baby boy. To capture the little kisses she put on his head and the little caresses she gave his angelic little face. To be able to preserve the look of love of love in her eyes when she gazed at him and to record the way his chunky little feet nestled just right in his Daddy's hand. Oh, I was so thankful for so many things as I stood in that tiny little room this afternoon. I am thankful now for more blessings than I will EVER be able to count! Blessings that I don't even realize right now. I am thankful for family. And for our wonderful friends. I am thankful for all of the support I receive both as a photographer and as a friend, as a wife, and as a mother. I am thankful that God led us here to this desert...that we could experience life here as never before. And as I squeezed in a last minute run tonight...I was so thankful for the beautiful sun that set right before my eyes on the way out...and for the enormous golden orange harvest moon that rose up over the mountains on my way back home from that run. God is SO amazing...so generous...so good. And life is so very good...even here in the desert of Tucson!