The Marsh Family Madness: Being Thankful

God has blessed us so tremendously. I have so much to be thankful for, and yet sometimes I find myself focusing on the small things that don't go as planned as opposed to focusing on the the bigger picture - that God truly has blessed us beyond what we deserve, and that even when things don't go as I've planned them, they are never outside of God's plan or control.

For example, Chris and I prayed for several years that God would bless us with children despite what doctors had told us - that without in vitro we would most likely never have them. God did indeed answer our prayers, and gave us our daughter Avery. We were so excited, and I immediately started planning things out - yes, I was one of those moms who even typed out a birth plan and took it to the hospital, as if I could control how that was going to turn out!

My plan: go into labor naturally, be able to labor and deliver without pain meds, have a happy, healthy baby and get to go home within a day or two!
God's plan: be a week overdue, have to be induced with medications, labor for 2 days with no progress and wind up with a c-section, have complications (gestational hypertension for me, a slight fever on day 2 for Avery), stay a week in the hospital before we get to go home...yet still wind up with a happy, healthy baby!

Hmmm...

My plan: breastfeed Avery until she was a year, then wean her and NEVER have to supplement with formula.
God's plan: 5 months into Avery's life, bring ANOTHER little one on the scene (surprise!), which results in a decreased milk supply and (out of extreme necessity) supplementation with formula by 7 months and almost complete weaning to bottles and formula by 8 months.

You'd think I'd learn, right? God's plan isn't always mine, and yet LOOK at those blessings - a baby when the doctors said it wasn't going to happen (a happy, healthy baby no less!), and then ANOTHER baby when we least expected it! We are so excited about this little one God is even now forming and growing inside me, and can't wait for June to arrive so we can meet this new little one, don't misunderstand! Yet, I've struggled a bit with being distracted by a disappointment that I wasn't able to keep breastfeeding exclusively, and with fear that this will wind up as another c-section (since my chances are pretty high that it will) vs. being able to have this one more naturally. Why is it so hard to just focus on the blessing and be thankful for what God has given me rather than be distracted by what He has taken away?

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." ~ 1 Thesssalonians 5:16-18

Choose to see the blessings today, and be thankful for what He has done!