Waking up to Gratitude

I love this holiday. I woke up this morning after the 5 AM feed and teething event to find everything calm again. For the first time in a long time I wished I had a sketch pad so I could draw it.  LuLu's first tooth-nub erupted on Thanksgiving.  While new teeth are an exciting development, they are causing her a lot of pain. Additionally, we are away from home, so our little routines are all disturbed.  At 5 this morning, LuLu woke up for her Fivesy, and I fed her, per habit, and then she finished, and usually the itinerary states that "baby will go back to sleep" but LuLu didn't. She cried and fussed and the snuggling and pacifier didn't work at all. We gave her some Baby Orajel, and discovered a second toothy nub!  While we lament the end of her days as a gummy "toothless wonder" and welcome her new chompers and the beginning The Dental Phase, the transition is not without pain. She eventually went back to sleep, and so did Dutch. The little storm has passed, and looking at them asleep and peaceful, makes my heart burst with love and gratitude. I am thankful for LuLu, who deigned to leave God's embrace to come to Earth and bless us with her presence. I am grateful to Dutch for all of his sterling qualities; his patience, wisdom and his ability to lighten any situation with a monkey reference.  I am grateful for my in-laws who invited us to spend the holiday in their beautiful vacation house by the beach, and for the decades of careful saving and planning that made it possible today. I am thankful for all the doctors and nurses who worked so hard with LuLu, helping her cope with all the lumps of being out of the womb too early. I am grateful to my family for making our present lifestyle possible, without them I couldn't afford to work or, paradoxically, not to work at the same time. Their generosity allowed me to find a balance between time at home and work.

So I am here, now, supported in a great web of love and joy, none of it is my doing, like a beggar in a palace, and all I can say is "hallelujah."