Incredibly Blessed

Sometimes my job takes me to really horrible houses. I work in a very rural county and work with some very nice, but often backwoods people. Having grown up in Dallas, I'm a city girl through and through. Before starting this job, I had little to no experience being out in the country. I've gotten much more comfortable with gravel roads, state highways, and chickens running loose in the yard. Today, like many visits, I took a state road to a county road and kept on driving. I pass the nice farm houses and keep going until I find the dirty, rundown houses or trailers and that's where I'm heading. I'm even getting to experience opening farm gates to drive down a road- very strange to me! Today's family has property owned by the grandparents and their kids live on the property along with cousins, nephews, etc. Each has their own trailer and yard space filled with random dogs, chickens and sometimes even a mule. There are many abandoned shacks/out buildings/broken down trailers on the property and the yard is littered with broken junk. The floor of the house is covered in smeared mud/dog poo, the place is completely dilapidated, the child is dirty and the parents are very low functioning. Often the nicest people you'll meet, but it's just a VERY eye opening experience.

The point of sharing this is that it always reminds me how blessed I am for all that I have. I was raised by well educated, middle class parents in nice houses and nice neighborhoods. I had a great education, clean clothes, an abundance of food and toys and never had to worry about my safety. I am so thankful to be able to provide these same things for my child. A.J. and I don't always like our jobs or the sacrifices we have to make to have the things we do, but we are SOO blessed! Many people right now don't have jobs, shelter or the comfort of knowing where their next meal is coming from. We have recently bought a beautiful house on a cul-de-sac with very nice neighbors in a middle class neighborhood. We can buy new clothes when we need them, have a new computer with internet, 2 nice tv's with satellite and we are able to have 3 fun, furry dogs. Tate has plenty of clothes, an abundance of toys, and he always has more than enough food. We are able to visit the doctor when needed, go out to eat and enjoy cheap entertainment. We also have the knowledge to be really good parents. We were blessed to have parents who were loving, supportive and encouraging. And of course, the biggest blessing of all is Tate Anderson Wahlquist!!!

 We sometimes forget all these blessings and it's nice to have a reminder now and then.

What are you most thankful for in your life?