day four: i am thankful for....

my family.

what to say about my family? like every other family, we have our problems, our dysfunctions, and relationships are sometimes difficult to handle. sometimes i want to throw my hands in the air and say, "screw it," and just give up on them. but the truth is i love my family dearly and i am grateful to have them in my life.

looking back on my childhood, there are a lot of good memories that i have. the dumb jokes my dad always told at the dinner table. the times i got along with my mom, walking through the mall with our arms around each other. playing dolls with my sisters. taking my little brother to the movies. dancing around the living room while my dad played the piano. making cookies and candy at christmas. the race for the "golden egg" at easter. walking home from school with my little sisters. watching each others basketball, volleyball, soccer games. the hugs and the jokes, the love i know my family feels toward me and toward each other.

my family is a work in progress and i'm sure it always will be. i see the changes in my mother, the positive changes, from my early childhood and i am proud of her. i see the way my four younger siblings have grown up and i am proud of them. i remember my youngest sister as a smart ten year old, who idolized me and i never knew it, just the way she was when i moved out of the house. now she is a 16 year old beauty, getting ready to play division one volleyball in college. i remember my baby brother as a blonde little three year old, and see him as a 6'5" brown haired 17 year old giant. i remember my other two sisters, always together, singing disney songs and quoting movies constantly. now one is married, one is engaged, both in college, both adults....and i can't believe how quickly time has passed, how much we have all changed, how different we are. sometimes i feel if i close my eyes we'll all be back home, sitting around the dinner table, kneeling together at night for family prayer, wiping sleep out of our eyes as we get ready for school.

i am so grateful to have my family, for the lessons they have taught me, both intentionally and unintentionally. i am grateful to live close enough to them to see them, to spend holidays with them, to be at important events. i am thankful for the happiness i feel when we are all together again, laughing and playing, acting like kids again.

i love you guys--dad, mom, my three little sisters, and my little brother, and my two new brothers in law.