In honor of Thanksgiving, I would like to take a break from the intense topics we have been exploring this week and focus on being thankful. I have a friend who writes down what she is thankful for every Thanksgiving, so I thought I would do the same here. Feel free to tell me what you are thankful for in the comments.
Here are some things that I am thankful for this Thanksgiving:
- My child – I spent many years not knowing if I would ever be a mother.
- My husband – He is a good provider and loves me, even though the person I am today barely resembles the wounded girl he married two decades ago.
- My sister – What would I do without my fellow foxhole dweller? I don’t think I would have survived my childhood without her.
- My friends – I have built my own family of women who are as close to me as sisters. I am so blessed to have a group of women who would do just about anything for me, as I would for them.
- My job – I am blessed to have a flexible, part-time, from home job that provides me with income to travel and “play” and gives me the opportunity to use my mind. It is also a rewarding job where I feel like I am making a difference in the world.
- My Internet access – Okay, okay. I admit it – I am a complete computer geek and junkie. The Internet has enriched my life, bringing me into contact with fellow child abuse survivors, fellow adoptive mothers, and other groups of people that I would never have met otherwise. I cannot imagine what my life would be like without the enrichment I experience from knowing all of you!
- My life – I really have a great life. Those of you who have read my story might marvel at me saying this, but I feel so incredibly blessed to have lived the life that I have. I have overcome numerous obstacles and thrived.
- My dogs – I adopted a couple of retired racing greyhounds a few years ago, and they are such a great addition to our family. They are very low maintenance. They just want to lie at my feet while I write on my computer, and they love to go for long walks with me in the pretty weather.
- My relationship with God – I don’t know where I would be without my faith.
- And last but definitely not least … My relationship with all of you!! – Even though I have never met any of you face-to-face, you know me in ways that many people in my day-to-day life do not, and I have gotten to know many of you well. I am so blessed by your comments, your emails, and your advice. I am blessed that you take time out of your busy day to read my blog. All of you are such a blessing to me, and I am truly thankful that you are a part of my life.
Photo credit: Hekatekris
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I am grateful for YOU and your blog and your faithful posting. I have a blog also, but I sometimes don’t post for weeks at a time, just because I am too beat.
You continue to be an inspiration for many of us and an intelligent, experienced voice to let us know we are not alone and that someone cares.
Have a great holiday Faith. What you do is priceless, and that’s just here in cyberspace… I’m sure in your real life you are even more priceless.
Peace and blessings,
mia
SO grateful for you too, Faith!
Loved reading your thankfuls. Thankfulness keeps us free from a bitter heart. I am thankful this morning for the sunrise, the sparkling icy crystals illuminating a green pasture. I am thankful for the gift of a new day of life- and for forgiveness, always abounding in Jesus for me and through me. I am thankful for real love that transcends all the cares and griefs of this life, for hope beyond this world, and for supportive and caring friends and family- they are priceless. And I too want to thank you for your work here, and the love and carefulness you put into it- For making yourself vulnerable, that others who are struggling with abuse might find strength and support and a light at the end of the tunnel. Happy Thanksgiving!!!
I am also Thankful for what you do here on your blog Faith…the help you give is immeasurable.
I am thankful for the fact that God has never left my side even though He feels so very far away at times.
I am thankful for my daughter who teaches me what joy is.
I am thankful for my husband who loves me even in my brokenness.
I am thankful for my therapist who challenges and guides me.
And, I am thankful we have all survived a childhood that should never have been, but now have the opportunity to truly LIVE
barbi
yay, thankful stuff!
i’m thankful to God for saving me, giving me courage and getting me out of abusive stuff… for keeping me alive, and for healing, even though this healing doesnt happen overnight but it is happening little by little and there is hope!
i’m thankful for people who share their pain and hope, like you Faith. even though i don’t really know you, thanks for sharing and writing so many helpful things in this blog.
sometimes i get in trouble when i’m not careful about what i read and what i’m not ready to deal with, but other times i’m encouraged and comforted. and many information here helped me to make sence of my bad and weird feelings.
i’m thankful for my friends, who have no idea why i am so sick in head sometimes, but they are caring and safe people
i’m also thankful for the first snow today! and for the fact that i have no homework for tomorrow
It’s long past Thanksgiving, but I think there is no day when it would be wrong to express thankfulness. Faith, I am so very thankful for you, your blog, your story and especially your willingness to share it. This past year has probably been one of the most difficult ones since I became an adult, lots of memories coming up, flashbacks, nightmares, dropping out of school for two semesters, a near-suicide, time at the hospital etc. right now my marriage is struggling and I am not sure, we will be able to ‘make it work’, but for the past few days I have felt a peace that has been missing from my life for a long time (if I ever had it!)…I have asked my therapist almost every session something along the lines of, “when will I be normal (again)”…and after reading your blog I know that I am and have always been NORMAL…normal for a person who lived through severe childhood sexual abuse, normal for a person with PTSD, normal for a person who just recently (after reading your blog and asking my therapist straight out) got the diagnosis of DID! So, Faith, I am thankful for the peace of mind during the past few days that was possible because of your gift, this blog! Thank you! (I hope I will not forget it, when harder days come again
)
Thank you, NY7. I needed to hear this today.
I am moving toward feeling “normal for me” since having the vertigo. I am also feeling a little “abnormal” in the parenting department. I just wrote a blog for this week for my professional blog about this. Two of my friends were going on and on about teaching their 8 to 10-year-old children why saying “freaking” is a “bad” thing while I am trying to keep my ADHD child from sledding off the roof! Nothing in my life is “normal,” and yet there is a beauty in the “abnormality” of my life.
Thanks again!
- Faith