Gratitude

I'm having one of those super grateful moments.  I get those a lot since having Jude.  A child really does have a huge impact on your perspective (well, if you're open to it anyway).

My son has a home, which includes heat, and running water, and his own room.  He has food to eat, good food, tasty food.  He has clothes, lots of them, and they're clean and they fit.  He has toys, sometimes I think he has too many of those.  He has parents that love him, and who love each other, something that is sadly more rare than we want to realize.  He see affection daily, both to him and between his parents.  He is healthy, in body and mind.  He has extended family that adores him.  He has family friends that adore him.  He has friends and playmates.  Essentially, he wants for nothing.

For someone that was raised on a welfare lifestyle this amounts to so much in my eyes.  The simply fact that he own a battery operated four-wheeler... I could only dream of such a thing as a child.  Not that I wasn't fed, but it was often less than appetizing, as those that have frequented food-banks and Beehive Industry store houses know.  Hand me down clothes can be depressing when you have only older brothers, and Value Village wasn't nearly as cool as it is now.  Love was there, but it was complicated due to untreated mental illness and repressed emotions.  I'm don't blame anyone for these things, they simply are what they are, and I know my parents tried.  They did want the best for us despite not always being able to provide it, and that does count.  However, I'm so glad we can give our boy more, and I believe my appreciation for these things constantly reminds me to teach Jude the importance of gratitude.

On that note, Jude now even says thank you after declining something.  He started off say "No, please." on his own so we had to swap that out for "No, thank you."  Of course, it's easy for him to pick up these things since it's reinforced through our us of it all the time.  Example folks, I swear by it.