Thankful Thursday: Taking the bad with the good.

First I want to apologize for getting this out so late.  My mind completely slipped that it was Thursday today.  :D 

Normally we’re thankful here for the good things that have happened, but I decided to change that up a bit.  Today we’re being thankful for something bad that happened.  Because sometimes bad things happen, so good things can.

For most of this it was a hard question to answer.  As it should be.  :D  Who wants to be grateful something bad happened?  But here’s what we were finally able to pick.

Jessie: Tough question, as there's a lot for me.  I'm one of those "everything happens for a reason" sort of person, so even when things seem really horrible, I can usually look back and realize it worked out for the best. For now, I'll go with being passed over for senior counsel at my last law firm.  (Senior counsel is where you've been an associate for a number of years and management gives you the nod that you're on your way to being partner by promoting you to senior counsel.)  At the time I was livid.  But it made me step back and think about whether I really wanted to be a partner there, or if I just trying to prove that I could make partner in a top national firm.  As I thought, I realized I didn't want all the junk that partnership entails and I left for my current, part-time, jeans-wearing job that I love (which is across the street from my daughters' school).  SO MUCH BETTER!

Nikki: I’m not yet in a space where I can be grateful for most of the bad things that have happened in my life (at least the first and major ones that come to mind).  So I guess I’ll go with my second daughter being born and spending her first week in the NICU.  She wasn’t a preemie, in fact she came a day late. But I had an extremely fast labor (she was born in the elevator) and she didn’t expel the amniotic fluid from her lungs and developed pneumonia.

At the time isn’t what great.  We lived 45 minutes from the hospital.  There were major fires going in our city.  But what I’m grateful for is ... It wasn’t my first child.  Had it been my first, I probably would have freaked out!  But I was able to take it all with a grain of salt.  I was able to realize how lucky she was, how fine she was going to be, especially compared to some of the other infants in the NICU.  She was strong. We were strong.  And my oldest went from being this clingy monster to an independent little girl in that week – home with her Bamma while my husband and I tag-teamed spending time with the baby.

AE: Oy! What a difficult one! >_< I'll have to go with the heartbreak dished out in the form of my then-fiancé breaking off our engagement. I was utterly and entirely, head-over-heels stupid in love with him. He was my everything. We'd refinished antique furniture, purchased rings, had half a home's worth of stuff. Then, he suddenly showed up and called it off. Talk about a knife in the heart--I'd never felt such pain. Now, years later, it's the best thing he could have ever done for me. I would have never met my husband, we would never have our kids, I wouldn't have my best friend. I wouldn't be the woman I am now. If I'd stayed with him, I would've never started writing.

I would thank him, now, because I really am better off without him.

As for myself, I guess I'm going to choose my daughter having Systemic JRA, for NUMEROUS reasons, because I get to stay home with both of my kids now, I’ve learned the value of quality time with my family, not necessarily quantity and because it gave me the excuse to start writing again.  With all the stress I was going under with her, I needed a release.  Writing was the perfect solution.