Ever thankful...

So much going on in blogland this week!  Congrats to Jason and Adrian with their baby girls!  I'm also keeping my fingers crossed for Kate that things go well with her EC and transfer coming up. 

On our end, we are making some progress towards June - although it does feel like it's taking it's sweet loving time getting here!  My mom's visa application is ready to mail.  I went to Target and picked up the extra toiletries I'd need for the trip.  The only thing I don't have is hand sanitizer in travel size.  Apparently, there's been a run on that so I'll keep looking in town until I find some.  Harris is supposed to put in his vacation request this week so that he can be off and go with me on vacation with my family 2 days after I get back.  I anticipate jetlag and know from the last trip that I'm going to be out of it for a couple of days.

I had an 8 year milestone this week and it's been a tough one.  Friday would have been my grandmother's 100th birthday.  She was an amazing woman who gave her days and nights to raise me while my mother worked and avoided life at home in a bad marriage.  My grandmother was one of the strongest women I've ever known, and she is someone I miss as badly today as the day after she died.  Just a little glimpse into the stock from which I come:  She and her husband were sharecroppers when he died suddenly at 42.  She had a 12 & 14 year old at home, no money in the bank to speak of, and creditors for everything from farm machinery to seed.  There was no "single parent" term back then but, she managed to find a job that would provide her and her kids a place to live (the "teacheridge" - where school marms were housed before marriage) while she worked in the school cafeteria.  She worked everyday of her life to make sure that there was a roof over their heads and food on the table - although it was sometimes leftovers from the school cafeteria.  She managed to buy her own house and pay it off in the late 90s - she was so excited to get that deed in the mail, I'll never forget it.  After she died, we found a spiral bound notebook that she had kept since 1960 with a record of where she repaid each and every creditor over the years.  Five dollars here, ten dollars there, until the accounts were all paid in full. 

Despite being alone, in debt, and having no idea what the future held, she remained determined and kept going.  She never gave up.  I'm lucky to have had her example of how to live, and how to persevere.   But that we were all so fortunate.