Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Top Ten Things We Are Thankful For

1: Each Other & Our children: We are unable to express in words the love we have for each other and our children. As husband and wife, we have learned the subtleties of communication, the importance of being united, and the ups and downs of marriage and parenting. We have learned the value of forgiveness and having the same priorities. Being a mother and father has redefined us like no other experience. We value every opportunity to spend together with each other and with our children. We try to express our love openly and often with our girls. We are blessed beyond our wildest dreams to have these four girls, and view them as our privilege to parent and to guide to adulthood.
2: The Gospel of Jesus Christ: Our beliefs give us our foundation that affect everything we do, our concept of who we are and who we will become. The church allows us to develop and grow to our potential. Without it, everything else that we are thankful for becomes meaningless for us. We are grateful for our Savior, for living prophets, and for the temple which allows us to be together forever. There are many other important components to our beliefs: scriptures, prayers, doctrine, the list could go on and on. But these three pictures summarize the most important to us.

3: Our Parents: Both sets of parents are converts and have always been valiant in their testimonies. We do not doubt that they try their hardest to follow the prophets. They gave us life and many opportunities. Their examples and love have been the greatest influence on our lives.

4: This Beautiful Earth: We love seeing all things in this natural world. Of all things mankind can create, none of them are as beautiful as the untouched, natural world. The more we learn about it, the more amazing it is how everything has its place and how everything works together to keep a balance.

5: Our Extended Families: brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews. We love you all and value our connections with you. As everyone gets older and relationships change, it is fun to see the emphasis change to the children.

6: Our Lives & Good Health: We are happy to be alive and happy to be alive at this time with all the progress. Our children are healthy, rarely do they get sick. No asthma or allergies. No learning or behavior disabilities. No debilitating diseases. There is much to be thankful for.

7: Our Home, Food, Transportation, etc. Although some things breakdown, we are grateful that we live in such a beautiful home and a great neighborhood. Our cars, though not impressive, get us where we need to go. We have more than enough food. Do we wish we had more stuff? Of course. We sometimes covet everything in the Pottery Barn catalog. Do we wish we had a nicer car? Sure. Do we crave Claim Jumper and Chili's? You bet. But we are more fortunate than 90% of the people in this world.

8: The opportunity for education. This is very important for us. Ryan graduated from CSU Northridge and is currently pursuing his MBA at University of Redlands. Lisa graduate with both her Bachelor and Masters Degree at BYU. We hope that our children understand what an important, priceless opportunity education can be. We hope they understand that getting their Bachelor Degree is a minimum.

9: The opportunity Ryan and Lisa had to serve missions in Taiwan. This has been such a blessing to us and has not only given us incredible experiences, a second language, and a love for all things Chinese; but also something that truly bonds us together: we know on a very intimate level what the other has experienced.

10: Our Country and the people who have fought for our freedom. Honoring our family members on this Veteran's Day: Robert Caress, Jim Cone, Bud Cone (WW II) and Tom Caress, Frank McCabe who served in the military.

1 comment:

Kyle said...

I'm loving your hair in that 80's family pictures.