Thankful Thursday

I'm joining in with Rebecca Jo @ Knit By God's Hand to share some of the things I've been blessed by this week. All thanks and praise goes to the Lord and if anything encourages you that's an awesome bonus!

 This week I am thankful...

** for all the ways God's love and goodness were apparent throughout the ordeal of dealing with the death of our son-in-law's brother.

** for Pastor Kirt, who willingly stepped in to officiate the funeral of someone he didn't know and minister to a family who doesn't know God and needs Him desperately.

** for the opportunities I had to reach out to our son-in-law's mother and show her love and compassion.

** for my church family who prayed and brought food...so much food! I had more than enough to keep the kids fed, us fed, our daughter and son-in-law fed, and send food to our s-i-l's parents. The whole mess stretched out a week and I still have a lot of food.

** little Sarah's mother has been surprising everyone and being quite nice and agreeable concerning Sarah. There had been a real fear that she would take her away...even though she had walked away 2 years ago. At this time, it appears that she is going to do some type of shared custody with our daughter and s-i-l. She will have the girl with her most of the time (hopefully) and our daughter and s-i-l will be there to help out with babysitting, getting her to school and appointments, etc. In return, they will have a guarantee of being able to see their niece with few restrictions and not have to fear losing her.

** that for the most part our grands welcome Sarah into the family and accept her as their (sort of) sister. There are some bumps as there will be with any bunch of kids put together and Sarah comes with some special needs, but mostly they are a happy crew.

My little country girls.

** for my crazy grandson who keeps us laughing with his VERY expressive face.

** for warmer weather and some days without rain that allowed the kids to get outside and burn off some energy and inspired me to get some potting soil and get my hands dirty repotting some of my houseplants...and maybe potting a couple of new ones. (Now all I have to do is convince Jasper to stay out of them.)

** that Jasper has a mellow personality. Otherwise, I'm sure he would have slice and diced Leah by now.

** for our son-in-law who has grown into a wonderful husband and father and kept our daughter and his parents anchored through the past week while stoically dealing with his own grief...and his birthday.

** our taxes are done and even though we discovered my former employer lied when they hired me (Since 2017 you can't deduct employee expenses on federal taxes unless they are required and in a contract and only the mileage could be claimed on the state taxes.) we ended up okay and with refunds on federal, state, and local taxes!

** as I always am, for your friendship, love, support, encouragement, and prayers. Love you all!