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A Thanksgiving of Real Gratitude

 

The Five Blessings Carrying Me Through This Season

Thanksgiving hits different when you’ve lived through storms that could’ve drowned you.
It hits different when life hasn’t been easy, when the world has tested you, when you’ve prayed harder than you’ve slept, and when the year hasn’t exactly wrapped itself in a pretty bow.

But even in the middle of chaos, heartbreak, and the kind of battles most people never see…
there are blessings.
Real ones.
Quiet ones.
The kind that show up when everything else looks impossible.

So this morning, I sat down and wrote out the top five things I’m thankful for.
Not the surface-level stuff.
Not the cliché answers people post online.

These are the things that keep me breathing, fighting, believing, and moving forward.

1. My Husband — My Warrior, My Why, My Heart

People see a prison number.
I see the man God gave me.
The man who has fought through trauma, demons, addiction, and pain that would crush most people.
The man who still chooses me, still loves me, still reaches for God, still holds hope even when he’s standing in darkness.

I am thankful for his strength, his honesty, his growth, and the way he loves me fiercely even from behind the wall.

Loving him has changed me, stretched me, broken me open, and rebuilt me in ways I never expected.
And I wouldn’t trade this journey — or him — for anything.

2. My Children — My Quiet Inspirations

They don’t even realize how deeply they anchor me.
How much they remind me that love continues, that hope is generational, that life never stops giving you reasons to stand back up.

My children are the living proof that God’s goodness runs right beside the pain.
I am thankful for them every single day.

3. Our Home — Our Little Sanctuary in a Storm

It may not be big.
It may not be fancy.
But it’s ours.
It’s warm.
It’s safe.
It holds laughter, memories, tears, and dreams.

In a world that feels unstable, unpredictable, and cold, I thank God for the roof over my head and the peace inside these walls.
This home has held me when my heart felt too heavy to carry on its own.

4. Our Relationship With God — The Only Reason I’m Still Standing

Without God?
I’d be lost.
I’d be bitter.
I’d be angry at the world and at every unfair thing it’s thrown at us.

But His grace…
His patience…
His presence…
His way of stepping into the cracks of my life and filling them with strength I don’t have on my own—

That is what keeps me going.

I am thankful for the prayers He heard even when I didn’t have the words.
For the battles He fought for us behind the scenes.
For the way He loves us back to life every time we’re knocked down.

5. The People Who Stayed — The Ones Who Didn’t Leave When Life Got Ugly

You learn who truly loves you when your world falls apart.
Some people disappeared.
Some judged.
Some gossiped.
Some walked away the moment things weren’t convenient.

But others?
They stayed.
They checked in.
They prayed for us.
They supported us.
They carried pieces of us when we were too exhausted to carry ourselves.

I am thankful for the few who stood close, who didn’t flinch at our truth, who didn’t turn away when life got messy.
Those hearts are treasures money can’t buy.

This Thanksgiving, My Gratitude Isn’t Perfect.

But It’s Honest.

Life is still hard.
My husband is still fighting battles on the inside.
I’m still fighting battles out here.
Some days are heavy.
Some nights feel long.
Some prayers feel unanswered.

But even in the middle of all of that…
I can still look at my life and say:

“Thank You, God.
You’ve never left us.”

Gratitude doesn’t erase the pain —
but it reminds me of all the reasons I keep going.

And today, on this holiday, I’m holding tight to every single blessing that’s gotten me this far.

Happy Thanksgiving, from my heart to yours.
May God meet you right where you are. 

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