Family

This #thankyouthursday, I am grateful for family.

My in-laws are visiting, and they traveled a long way to be here. And this weekend grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins along with a chosen family of friends will gather in my backyard to celebrate the first birthday of my son.

And next week we’ll get to unite with another cluster of family in another city, and next month we’ll have even more opportunities to see people we love, many of whom share our blood.

Family is a lot of things, including challenging. But the older I get, the more I appreciate my family in all its forms—especially now that I am forming my own.

And I really am forming my own. Sometimes I still can’t believe how my life has unfolded, how swiftly I went from single to married, how after years of accepting a child-free future I ended up becoming a mom.

But it’s been nearly a year since I gave birth, and my son is healthy, and my marriage is strong, and because of those truths everything else feels both possible and unimportant. Maybe that sounds weird. It’s just that yesterday I turned 38, and I’ve been consequently reflecting, and it feels good to like what I see.

To be grateful for family.

Love > fear,
Christina

p.s. Runner-up for this week’s gratitude: the COVID-19 vaccines! We couldn’t be reconnecting with all this family if it weren’t for vaccines, which is to say science.