thankful.
This Thanksgiving feels like an embarrassment of riches. I'll share turkey with my hard working husband, who makes me laugh and loves me well every single day. My newly adopted son will wobble-run around the table, eating the weird things he finds on the floor, with no fear of ever having to spend Thanksgiving anywhere else. I won't be able to eat nearly the amount of stuffing I'd like because I'm sharing the space with the healthy baby girl pirouetting in my belly, but you won't hear me complain. And this year, more than any I can remember, I will look at my mother with staggering gratitude. It was just weeks ago she held my hair back in that truck stop parking lot and promised me one more time there have been zero cases of morning sickness lasting forever; she kept our boy happy and tired from all their trips to the park; she kept my husband fed when even lettuce smelled like an outhouse. She kept this little family afloat in one thousand ways. She's our hero. And to you, readers eating cranberry sauce with cousins, or heading into work across the pond, thank you for your graciousness, your candor, and for reaching out to say me too. It is a privilege to walk this crazy, poopy, wonderful road with you.
- April Hoss, author of: When It Was Real | Brave, Brave, Brave | Bad Math
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Today I’m thankful for the almost eight week-old baby sleeping on my chest, who should only be four weeks old right now. I’m thankful that after delivering him at 35 weeks, he came out screaming his tiny head off, just like I was at that exact moment in time. I’m thankful for his big brother, who is adjusting to his new role better than I ever could have imagined. I’m thankful for this home, this family, this food, the way the air smells this time of year. I’m thankful for motherhood: for this exhausting gift that continues to bless me and challenge me all at once. And today, as I count my blessings, I am especially thankful for this site. I am thankful for the readers of Coffee + Crumbs who have given us a space to share, a platform to write, and a place to talk about motherhood in all its messy glory, free from judgment and criticism. I am thankful for every comment, every e-mail, every single “like” on Facebook. Thank you for encouraging us, for motivating us, and for loving us well as we dove headfirst into this idea. I am thankful that every single month, I have the honor of writing for you.
- Ashlee Gadd, author of: Taking The Time To Marvel | Good Enough | A Letter To My Pre-Mom Self | To Be Sad For What Isn't
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The woman who can “…give thanks in all circumstances…” (1 Thessalonians 5:16) has long been the woman I want to be. Someone who lives the overflowing joy of her life with all of the authenticity of an honest, sometimes tired, often burnt out, but always marveling mama. Because with two babies under two years old, my hands are full, but so is my heart. I am immeasurably thankful for my husband—he’s my best friend and biggest encourager; my babies—because they are my most important life’s work right now; and my people—who love me and put up with me and tell me I look like I’ve lost all my baby weight (they are such good almost-truth tellers). I’m thankful for pumpkins and apple cider candles and fleece blankets and books. And fall football, which goes without saying. And I’m so thankful for words: life-giving, story-telling, truth-seeking words. They connect us, encourage us, remind us that “the story of one of us is in some measure the story of us all” (Frederik Beuchner). Happy Thanksgiving, dear readers; thank you for the honor of trying to tell the stories of us all.
- Katie Blackburn, author of: Some Choice Words For Pinterest | What The Books Don't Say | It's Their Day, Too | Mamas Need A Village, Too | Not So Simple Math
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I'm writing this from a rocking chair in a nursery in the middle of the night. I'm tired out of my mind - I've been sitting here for an hour at least - but I'm also so thankful to be right here right now. For a few years there, it looked like I'd never be a mom. I'm thankful for those years because they taught me not to take these ones for granted. I'm thankful for the story that I have to tell my son someday, about how wanted and waited for and worth it he was.
I'm thankful for stories, for people willing to listen to mine and for people willing to share theirs and for a place for all of this storytelling to happen.
- Suzy Krause, author of: The Answer To The Question | How To Be Friends With Supermom | The Mom Club | Motherhood + Anxiety
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Today I am thankful that I don't have to take my 17 month old on a plane and that family came to us. I am thankful that even though that same 17 month old has decided to stop sleeping through the night, that her wake-ups take minutes to solve instead of hours. I am thankful for the time I get with her and the time I get with my work each week. I am thankful that while my husband has to work today he gets tomorrow off. I am thankful for a stack of books at my bedside table and boxes of tea in my cupboard. I am thankful for the opportunity to speak honestly about and listen carefully to the tales of motherhood.
- Elise Blaha Cripe, author of: New Normal | Wide Open | Pancakes and Perspective
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I love singing the hymns I know in church. There’s something about returning to the words I know that makes me want to sing as loud as I can. Our church is pretty small so it’s easy to recognize others’ voices. The lady who gave me a snuggly new outfit when Harper was born is a soprano. The gal who is concerned with the nearby school and surrounding community our church is nestled in sings a strong alto. There’s one guy, a friend of ours, who sings the most beautiful harmony, and no matter where I am in the sanctuary, I can hear him.
He usually waits until the second verse to start singing harmony. Maybe he’s warming up, getting situated in the story, maybe he’s getting the rest of us comfortable with our own voices so we have the strength to carry the melody when he adds complimentary notes. He has quite a range, and I try to follow along, but I can’t do what he does, so I stick with the melody. However, I am thankful for the texture he brings to the mystery we are all trying to figure out. I see the story I think I know so well differently when he sings.
I’m thankful that I get to be a part of the harmony of Coffee + Crumbs. I’m thankful to be among other writers who are willing to share their story – not one that they say they know, or have it all figured out, rather, I’m thankful to be writing alongside other mothers who are willing to sing their part as best they can as we all try to take note of the mystery of motherhood.
- Callie Feyen, author of: In Trouble | Why I Forgot The Ground Beef
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I love Thanksgiving because it's so active. Thanks doesn't just happen. Thanks is something you give. This year, I'm giving thanks for eighteen years with my fabulous hubs, fourteen of those locked in wed, and my three kids and our combined beautiful weirdness. I'm giving thanks for the mind-blowing privilege of getting to pour all of myself onto pages of both the print and web variety and have lovely, authentic people receive them, read them, and respond. What a complete joy to read and write in community, to share our lives together, to have words span the miles, kilometers, or light years. The one thing, the big thing, for which I give thanks is relationships - with family, with friends, with readers, and with God. Relationships are everything. Happy Thanksgiving, fellow Crumbles.
- Melanie Dale, author of: When They Took My Baby Away | Tutus and Cowboy Boots | Boogers Are The New Sexy | A Story Behind The Picture | I Felt Failure
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I am thankful for stories today. I am thankful for my family of origin and the wild story that we all share together, replete with a few crazy characters and several plot twists along the way, but forever and always centered around a theme of love. I am thankful for the family I have created for myself and the story that we're working on now, laboring over these early chapters to the point of complete exhaustion, but laboring together. I am thankful for the brand new story that my body tells me every day about what I am capable of and how sublime sunshine can feel and how some music just demands to be danced to. And I am thankful for you, readers, and for that fact that you love stories too. I am thankful that I have this space to tell some of my stories, and that even when I'm nervous about telling them - like I was last week - fearing that you might judge me, that instead you said the sweetest thing that I could have possibly heard: "Me too." I am thankful that none of us are alone in these stories that we find ourselves in.
- Anna Quinlan, author of: Unraveling | Some Days, Left; Other Days, Right | No Apologies Necessary | I Used To Be Fun
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I am thankful to be able to wake up in The Land of the Rising Sun each day, next to a man who is good to me, and to the muffled humming of my daughter through her baby monitor. I am grateful for the existence of those two humans, and that we get to share this strange and beautiful life together. I am thankful to watch the sun rise and fall behind Mount Fuji in the beginning and end of each day. I am thankful for a warm home today that smells like sweet potatoes and cranberries. I am thankful for a body that is healthy, for a heart that beats strongly. I am grateful to be endlessly broken yet deeply loved all at once. I am thankful to have found my voice here, and for the opportunity and freedom I have had to share it with you. I am grateful for the power in community and the strength in womanhood. And I am profoundly thankful, and incredibly indebted to all of you, for making your way here each week, and finding value in our words.
- N'tima Preusser, author of: To My Daughter, I Will Beg | A Kumbayah to Motherhood | When Love Feels Heavy