Thankful

This morning, I woke up in a bad mood. I don't know why. I just did. May patience was shot the moment my feet hit the floor. Not a good thing when you are a stay-at-home momma of a 3 year old and a 1 and a half year old. My job requires tremendous amounts of patience and, I admit, I don't always have it in abundance. 

My children took their cues from me and both started out the morning with tantrums. . Unfortunately, I lacked the creativity I needed and, with my patience taking a vacation, I ended up responding with tantrums of my own. I won't dispense the gory details but, it was not pretty and it ended up with Kai locking herself in her room and not being able to unlock the door, which, eventually had to be shouldered in (to be clear, this was not a part of my tantrum but out of necessity as I could't get the door open any other way).

I began to feel quite pitiful and exasperated. But, then… I read a post by one of our "liver friends". Their daughter, Luca, just turned a year old this past weekend. Luca has had a very difficult post-transplant journey and is not, technically, out of the woods, yet. Yet, she and her family always seem so positive and inspirational.

I remembered how fortunate I am to have two healthy children. As I reflected on this, my frustration dissipated. I let go of my guilt and self-pity and indulged in a little gratitude that my kids are developmentally appropriate and throw tantrums and realized that I'm human and I won't always be the nurturing, patient mommy I want to be. Things won't always be perfect. But, you know what? We've got a lot to be thankful for.