A month of Thanks ~ family

Today being Thanksgiving, I thought it was appropriate to save this post for today.

I'm actually spending Thanksgiving in Atlanta. Lauren and Rachel and I are heading out tomorrow and meeting Lauren's mother and step-father there. I'm not sure what to expect this weekend. It's my first Thanksgiving that I won't be spending with my parents, and I'm feeling a little bummed. Even though Lauren and Rachel are my family too, it's still not quite the same. It's hard to embrace change sometimes. But I suppose that's all a part of growing up.

And so today I'm thankful for my family. My parents, Emily and my other "sisters", my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins... all of them.

It's easy to take them for granted. I took Emily for granted her whole life. And it took her death to make me realize just how precious family can be. And how I'm so blessed to have so many people in my life who love me.

Family.

They drive you nuts, make you laugh, they make you cry, can send you running for the nearest loony bin, they make you angry, and they love you in spite of the ugly sides.

Some days it's harder to remember. Some days it's the only thing that keeps you going. I find God has a wicked sense of humor when it comes to family. He links a group of people together that if you weren't related to them, you probably wouldn't have anything to do with them. :)

I'll be honest. Sometimes I find it hard to be thankful for family. Sometimes all of the dynamics just gets to be too much. But I guess in some ways, that's part of the beauty of family. As much as we all would like to sometimes, you can't ever separate yourself from them. They're a part of you, a part that goes deeper than just genetics and family ties- they're intertwined in who you are. They're memories and hopes for the future. They're the whispers of happy times, and shadows of darker nights. They belong to you, and you to them, in a way that friends simply can't.

Today I'm thankful for all of it- for the light and the dark. In all of it's beauty, it's ugliness, it's ups and downs, high points and low points.... at the end of the day, your family really is sometimes all you have.