22. I am grateful for my little getaway with Craig.  It was so desperately needed.  I am so grateful to those who helped us escape.  My parents and Craig’s parents for helping us realize how important it was for us to get away and gave us a little extra incentive to enjoy ourselves 😉   I am grateful for my dear friends Kristin and Cami who took my kids every single day and made sure that they were taken care of. I am so grateful for Craig and how hard he tried to make the time special, enjoyable and memorable.  I am grateful that we had a chance to sit back, talk, relax and realize what was important and realize how much we love each other and the reason why we got married in the first place!!!!!  Lastly, I am so glad that we got to make so many new and interesting friends.  I have never been on a cruise where I have met and enjoyed hanging out with fun people.  Friendships were made that will last for years to come.  It was truly a great blessing!

23.  I am grateful that my children survived… although for some it was barely… our getaway. 

24. I am grateful that we have the ABC Family channel.  The 25 days of Christmas has been a much needed break for all of us.

25.  I am grateful for chocolate and popcorn.  Enough said.

26. I am grateful that at the end of the day, I have everything that I need. I really don’t want for anything and I am grateful to have first world problems.  I have seen and experienced what real poverty is and I am so grateful that I have no reason to want.

27.  I am grateful that I have a car that is reliable, comfortable and can carry my family.  I am grateful that it is paid for. I am grateful, that even though I am a mini van mom, that I am not ashamed of it!  I kind of like my mini van.  Don’t tell Craig though.  I am still trying to get him to trade me his Highlander for my Sienna.

28.  I am grateful that I have been through enough to know that I am strong and that I can endure.  The more trials that I go through, I often wonder why… Then somewhere along the road I realize that they are for my good and that they are making me a better person.  I know that they are making me grow and stretch,  I just sometimes wish that I could get a break from growing and stretching.

29.  I am grateful for my faith and testimony.

30. Last, but not least.  I am so very grateful for Craig. I saved him for last for a reason.  He is the best thing that has ever happened to me in my life.  I know that our story is one of weaving and intertwining paths that have crossed numerous times over the past ten 11 years.  I am so grateful for the trials that we have both been through that have made us so good for each other. I am so intensely grateful that he makes me laugh every day.  He makes me want to be a better person. 

For so many years I would look at other people’s marriages and wonder how they could be so lucky and find such a perfect match for them.  I wasn’t naive and knew that every couple has issues and problems.  I just saw that everyone had a way to work through them. I saw how my friends loved their husbands and how their husbands loved them back.  I never got it.  However, now I know what it is like to love and be loved like that.  I am not trying to be cheesy, but honest in saying that I am so blessed to FINALLY have the love of my life in my life.

As one of the signs that we had made at our wedding said, “I have always known it was you.”  Craig, I am so very blessed to finally have you be not only a part of my life, but be my life.  I love you more than you will ever know.