I am thankful. However you wouldn’t know that if you have spoken to me in the last couple of weeks because I have spent most of it complaining. Complaining about the fact that my seven month old has reverted to newborn sleep and feeding patterns. Belle is not sleeping. She refuses to go down in the evenings, she will not eat anything except breastmilk and when we finally get her to sleep she wakes every two hours through the night crying. It has been two weeks of this and I am really fed up. Teething? Growth spurt? I don’t know but I am ready for it to pass.

There is a place for venting about a difficult parenting patch. However I have been totally guilty of letting that take over recently.

And then we heard news that a couple that we knew had lost their little boy who was born early after a very difficult pregnancy. My heart is breaking for them as I watch in absolute awe at their bravery, honesty and courage. However, their loss has totally put things into perspective for me and my response is utter thankfulness for what we have right now.

This is just a season, not forever. Teething will come and go, sleeplessness will eventually phase out and our little one will grown up.

It is easy to lap up the good bits (of which there are many) but I am going to work on embracing the hard bits too.

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)