Oh Thank Cuteness! — Melissa

A devotional story making the e-mail rounds several years ago talked about a florist who sold unusual bouquets for Thanksgiving: flowerless stemmed roses with thorns. In other words, sticks that poke you. The whole point was that you don’t really appreciate the blessings of your life unless you’ve bloodied your hands on a few thorns.

Well, frankly, this year has had plenty of thorns stuck in among the blooms. Which means I am soaringly grateful for the great things in my life…my sweet family, my many friends, my faith and my hairy dogs (even the old cranky one).

And because this week is all about celebrating the things in our lives for which we are grateful, here’s one of my favorite pictures of my two girls, when Delia was about 8 years old, and Catherine, about 3:

Delia is now 24, and an accomplished snowboard cross racer.  She also made a run at scholarship funds through the Miss New Mexico pageant this
summer, finishing in the Top 10. She has never taken the easy (or conventional) route to anything and is utterly fearless. When she was about 5, we often saw hot air balloons flying over our home in Colorado, and I remember her saying that
some day she was going to fly in one. And she did. Followed last year by her first skydiving jump. What is it with this girl and her craving for adrenaline?
Makes my BP soar!) She works part-time, goes to school part-time and is in training for the upcoming snowboard racing season, following her dream to represent the United States on the Olympic snowboarding team.  I am in awe of her drive to go after her dreams, regardless of how unusual they might be.

Catherine is a wise old soul at her current tender age of 19. For the past 5 years, she’s lived with lupus nephritis, a potentially life-threatening condition that, on the bad days, can make her feel 100 years old with fatigue and pain.  (Just last week, she said her
Christmas wish list included shoes that would help her knees feel better. People, this is not what a
19-year-old should be hankering for. I rail against the unfairness of her having developed this disease, but am also  fervently thankful she has had excellent medical care and is currently in remission. ) She hopes to return to school part-time in 2012, while keeping her full-time job and living on her own. She is interested in botany and herbs, and dreams one day of having an herbal shop, and helping people learn how to enjoy herbs for medicinal, cosmetic and culinary uses. I am in awe of her patience with her health, and the perseverance that got her through the many days of chemotherapy
that helped push her into remission. Again, a girl with guts to burn.

But that’s not all the family. I also have two great adult stepchildren. Both live in New York, so I can count on one hand the number of times we’ve seen them this decade, but with the magic of Facebook, that seems less glaring. Here’s Synge, who is 35 and a wildly talented director/actor:

And there’s Skid, who is –what? Can he really be near 40?–and also extremely talented. You’ve heard of Leah Day and her 365 days of quilting designs project? Well, Skid embarked on a similar self-challenge to write a haiku a day. Here he is, as part of a team he and Synge sponsor  every year in the New York Walk for Lupus in honor of their little sister. He’s the tall one in the second row, second in from the right.

Finally there’s the Mister, who is soon to segue from real estate sales and reinvent himself as a city bus driver. His is the Irish wit that all four kids possess in spades. Some of you may know he broke his leg earlier this year, and was sidelined for months. It didn’t
stop his work in real estate, though. Kind friends carted him around and pushed
his wheelchair as he continued to show properties to prospective buyers or present offers to sellers. Local market conditions, though, spurred him to seek another way to provide for the family, and he’s proud to be joining the ranks of the city employees. We’ve been married 28 years. I am grateful for his willingness to keep reinventing himself.

We share our daily lives with three fine beasts. Our little old man-dog is Robin, a
13-year-old Soft-Coated Wheaten terrier. Priscilla (who totally rules…and I
mean that) is a 6-year-old Red Heeler mix. And Ranger…well, he’s just big. He’s
a 2-year-old Catahoula-coyote-wolf-Mastiff mix who weighs in at 110 pounds, and
hits about 6 feet when he’s standing with his front paws on your shoulder. (Sorry….no pics….I’m verging on boring.)

With all these blessings, can you see why a few thorns don’t scare me? Happiest of Thanksgivings to you!

P.S. Want to join us in Oh, Thank Cuteness Week? Just click here
to go back to our first post of the week and scroll to the bottom, where you
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