Babies and the Path of Gratitude

Having a baby always looks glorious on the outside. We see the youtube videos of laughing babies, cute things they do, and even some seem like mini Einsteins.  Then there are the difficulities... the long nights, the continous spit-ups, food thrown everywhere, your schedule is never your own, you revolve it according to their naps, and so much more.  However, the one thing you will never catch me do is complain about ANY of these or anything else.

Tonight, while my husband was feeding our son after his bath, I was picking up his toys and putting them away. I stopped looked around, and smiled. I just looked and realized.... We... are... blessed! Many people can have a negative attitude about all the work it takes to raise a child. About how annoying it can be to have to pick up these toys over and over every night. How repetitive it feels to wash those teething toys continously because the dog fur just finds its way to it every moment of every day no matter how clean the house is, like a child to sugar.  Yet, I don't, and WON'T, go there. Because we are blessed.

We are blessed first and foremost to have a... no THIS... child. We are blessed with the love of each other to support one another and create such an amazing family dynamic where we communicate and respect each other. We are blessed to have the items we do that our little one loves to play with as well as the ones that keep him safe. We are blessed with all the clothing to dress him up. We are blessed with loving family and friends, near and far.  We are blessed with all the medical technology that was able to help our little one through his trials. We are blessed with books so we can read to him and he can tear and chew on pages, food to eat and he can throw and splash, bibs and burpclothes to catch all that spit up and create lots of laundry (and blessed with washer machine!). I could seriously go on forever.

My point being that as parents, we are supposed to be teaching our children morals, virtue, truth, goodness, and beauty. And yet, Isaac has been teaching me more than I ever thought he would in the almost 8 months he has been born... more if you count in utero.  And the lesson I have been learning of late is everything follows your attitude. If we look on life in a positive way, all follows so. If we choose to look at it negatively, we are doomed to follow that path.  I have chosen the path of gratitude. I hope you do also.