The Turkey has been Eaten...And How Babies Are Born

I have always loved Thanksgiving.  In the midst of a chaotic life, it seems the perfect opportunity to ponder a bit about what one is thankful for.

This weekend, we asked the kids what they were thankful for.  First up for Lizzie:  "Food!"  To which Seth added, "Good food!"  To which I responded, "Well, I'm glad you think the food is good!"

Other noteworthy items of thanksgiving were bandied about the table:  family; friends; the reality of grace in our lives; having enough money to have a nice home and food on the table; tv (that was not on my list...it was on Seth's!); being able to do school at home (on Matthew's list); our bodies that work hard for us (an apt note for Lizzie, given that we are about to launch a week of study based on the human body); for birth family far away; and on and on.

Seth then asked, in the midst of all of that (maybe because we were talking about bodies and birth families) where babies came from; specifically, how they got out of a woman's body.  So, there at the dinner table, we talked about the two ways that a child can emerge from the female body, and about how Matthew had been born one way and how they had been born the other way.  In fact, I've told them all this before, but for some reason the information hasn't really stuck with the two younger kids.  Seth looked as horrified hearing it this time as he did the last time: eyes huge; fingers in mouth; listening intently.  He asked if I was "a hundred percent sure" that babies didn't come from bellybuttons, and I assured him of my confidence in this area.  I let Geoff go on to explain about umbilical cords.

We concluded with my saying that we were very thankful that each of them had been born.

Indeed, we have much to be thankful for!